Hi, all! Sorry in advance but long post...

@Callie - your effort to bring more attention/interest in the Cal softball program through your articles is very much appreciated so thank you for what you do!

I waited to watch a few more games with my own eyes (as opposed to following stats and the play by play - because they can't relay some of the nuances) - before adding my 2 cents.

Pitching - I think that this is where it all starts for just about every team. You have to have good-great pitching. At the moment, I'm sorry to say that we just do not have enough consistent pitching. Many have talent but I am not sure that they have enough different looks for them to pitch 2-3 times through a lineup. This is even more difficult in a 3-game conference series. The other thing is that, like all players, our pitchers have have days when they have their "A" games, some days with their "B" game, and some with their "C" game. The hard part is that we're not getting enough "A" days for whatever reason. And their "B" or "C" games are not good enough against elite hitters. To my eyes, while I don't have data to really back me up on this (but I suspect the team does), our pitching doesn't seem to get a lot of swings and misses. This is borne out by having 62 strikeouts (and 80 walks - never good when you give up more walks than strikeouts) in 26 games - just under 2.4 strikeouts per game on average (2.7 strikeouts per 7-innings - because some of those games were done after 4-5 innings). And, often (again I don't have stats but to my eyes) when the balls are hit off of our pitchers, they tend to be hit somewhat hard, which puts pressure on our defense. There's a reason that Tennessee (Karlyn Pickens and their staff - 8 errors in 24 games), Texas Tech (NiJaree Canady, Terry from UCLA and Riasetto from Louisiana) - 16 errors in 25 games) and Nebraska (Jordy Bahl/Frahm and their pitchers - 16 errors in 23 games) have fewer errors. Balls, in general, aren't hit as hard off of them. We have 32 errors in 26 games. I agree with Callie in that I suspect a top priority for next season will be more pitching, if nothing more to be able to provide more different looks. As for Togia pitching for the Corona Angels, it's possible she could be developed - I'm not sure. I think more than anything, she was just a different look - couldn't tell how much movement she has on her pitches. The question for me is how consistent she could be. That being said, she did not play on the top team for Corona Angels. I think I mentioned this in a prior post, but not all teams within an organization are created equal. For example, for Corona Angels, the top team is the one coached by Marty Tyson The top team for the Batbusters is the one coached by Mike Stith. The top team for Firecrackers is the one coached by Tony Rico along with Sean Brashear. The top Athletics Mercado team is the one coached by Dave Mercado. This is not to say there aren't other good Batbusters, Firecrackers, Athletics teams or even other good organizations but those tend to vary a lot more in terms of the quality of players produced from year to year. What can often be confusing is that all of these teams will occasionally/frequently bring in players from some of their feeder teams to certain showcase games. The top teams will play other top teams which will give you a better measure of how they stack up. I will also note, in seeing the pitching from the the fall showcases, there seems to be a general decline in the quality of pitchers from the west coast. The top pitchers now, for whatever reason, are coming from the Midwest or south/Texas - just my view seeing it in travel ball. Overall, the one thing that our pitchers could work on is a change of pace pitch. Apart from some of the changeups from Waiters and Mashhoud, a lot of the pitches appeared to be very similar in speed.

Defense - I know that our infield defensive look has changed a lot so far. Heck, just about all positions have gone through changes with the exception of Counts in CF (mostly). For the most part, agree or not, the player has to hit in order to play. As it's been said, if you can hit, they will find a position for you... With so much movement, it can be hard to gel no matter how much practice you put in. The players can get a sense of what each other can and cannot do and adjust accordingly. For our team currently, that hasn't happened - understandably so. The coaches are still trying to figure out the best lineup. Thus, I think there have been times that some players have played out of position. For example, while she did ok, Togia is probably not our best 2b option - but she was hitting. At that time, so were some of the other players but Jackson and Geluz were not.

Hitting - Hitting, in general, just tends to be up and down. It appears to me that many of our players still tend to have an uppercut swing which doesn't allow for consistency in softball just based on the angles the ball is coming from the pitchers. I know that they have a plan and approach that they talk about. I, obviously, do not know what the plans were so can't comment on how well they were executed. However, I do see that our players tend to swing and miss a lot. I didn't know it until I looked it up but we have a cumulative 137 strikeouts to 74 walks. Not a good stat. I also noted that there seems to be a lot of our players who strike out looking. This suggests that our players maybe do not know the strike zone well. If they can't put the ball in play consistently, then the game plan can't be followed...no matter what the plan was.

Coaching - I think I this is very hard to gauge. I agree again with Callie - I think Coach Singleton has a vision and has a plan. However, he inherited this group of players that was kind of thrown together urgently after so many of our former players left. And, the level of talent that left can't be overlooked. Almost all of them are high contributors for their current teams - Quiroga for Texas Tech, Butler for Oregon, Pond for ASU, Bell for Arkansas, Phillips for UCLA, McDade for Louisiana Monroe and even Medina for Georgia Tech. That's a HUGE chunk of what would have been a more than solid nucleus. As a result, knowing a little bit about how recruiting works, it's possible that many of the transfer players may not have been ones that the current coaching staff would have recruited... And that may be why things aren't gelling. But I remain optimistic that things will get better. The one thing that the coaches may be able to work on with the players is their communication and attitude on field and even in the dugout. I don't see the energy that was more present in the last few years. There were some very nice defensive plays but not much followed (as in excitement/congratulations from teammates) from what I could see. It seems that they should be almost talking to each other before every pitch... And I also saw some frustrations showing up on field over the last few games that I was able to watch. For example, when the pitchers were struggling, it appeared that the catcher was showing frustration as opposed to trying to encourage her battery mate. Also, I think that the catcher should be the commander of the defense and I didn't consistently see that. However, I also get that this may not be a priority if they're working on other fundamentals.

Overall - I had thought that the preseason ranking of us being in the middle of the ACC was generous - but I was hopeful. I was hopeful the coaching staff can come in and make huge improvements. However, as harsh as it may seem, there may have been a reason so many of the players were not consistent starters for their respective teams last year... But hopefully, as mentioned before, the players will show progress and improvement.

I know that there was a lot of hype on the boards for some of our current players based on their high school stats. I can't stress this enough - high school stats, especially for softball, is not very meaningful. It depends so much on what league they're playing in and the caliber of players in that league. For most high school teams, it is very difficult to be consistently good because it so depends on the level of players you get from year to year. I know that there is a lot of excitement for Clincy coming in. I am hopeful and optimistic. I hope I get a chance to watch her pitch in travel ball this summer, playing for the Nuggets. This is similar to the hope with McGowan. And Roelling as well the years prior - she did well, but not as well as it was hoped (at least for me) but still very good. I still think that Singleton and company are the right hires. I am viewing this season as rebuilding. I will be very excited when we win but won't be terribly disappointed when we lose, as long as the players are making progress. Robinson seems to have figured something out in the last few games. The key will be consistency. I don't know for sure, but it seems to be that there will be some conversations with some players at the end of the season. If I'm adding things up correctly, we currently have 23 on the roster. We have 1 senior (Johnson) and 1 grad student (Marshall). I don't think Johnson has any more eligibility. Marshall may still have another year due to prior red/blueshirting. We have 5 players signed to come in fall 2026. Add to that, if the coaches plan on hitting the portal with roster limits of 25...

This is not meant to be a doom and gloom. Rather, just my take on the team/program as possible. Look forward to others' thoughts...

Thank you CAGB3, that's very kind of you to say. I'll remember you saying that the next time I feel self-conscious about being a rookie journalist.

Anyway, time to talk about the meat and potatoes of your post, because I guess I'm living on this thread full time now lol. I think we agree on practically everything here, especially about consistency. On all sides we struggle with this, and there's no two ways about it. I was going to go into detail and write more about this here but my brain is completely fried from work and I couldn't land what I was trying to say. So basically, "ditto" from me.

As for the recruiting and coaching stuff, I wanted to just note: none of our players were recruited by Steve. They were all recruited by Chelsea. Portal opened in late May and closed in June. Cal announced Chelsea stepped down June 23, and Steve was hired August 4th. Only one player transferred out from Cal after 6/23/25 (Mia Phillips) and only one player transferred in after 6/23/26 (Taylor Peacock). So Singleton is playing with a team he didn't put together.

So yeah, you're right to see this season as a rebuild. I'm not optimistic about playoffs, but I am optimistic about the future. Frankly I'm seeing this year as a prelude to a rebuild, and I think Steve is going to put together some highly ranked/regarded recruiting classes. That's what I'm looking forward to.