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Softball Alameda feels FSU's pitchers will learn from pressure of top-25 matchups

Bob Ferrante

Ultimate Seminole Insider
Staff
May 10, 2022
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Florida State’s ERAs look more like interest rates. This is also the cost of business when inexperienced pitchers face top-25 teams.

While Allison Royalty (0.54) and Mimi Gooden (1.56) have relatively lower ERAs in their first few weekends of the 2024 season, Emma Wilson’s ballooned to 5.09, Makenna Reid's to 7.88, Ashtyn Danley's to 10.14 and Madi Balk's to 21.00. A pitching staff that’s light on experience learned some difficult but not unexpected lessons after going 1-2 in the Clearwater Invitational with a win over No. 9 Stanford and losses to No. 20 UCLA and No. 4 Georgia.

“I expected us to get exposed a little bit,” FSU coach Lonni Alameda said. “And I also wanted to put ourselves in a lot of different positions. There’s times I could have gone to Allison or an experienced pitcher, but I decided to get Mimi in there, I decided to get other people in there, to try and extend Makenna, try to do some things that I need to see what we’re capable of against really good hitting teams so that I know what we need to work on.

“I kept saying, ‘Stay with me and let’s work through this so that I can learn and we can learn so we could be better.' ”

 
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It was tough to watch, but this is how you build and improve. The last two weeks of the season are much more important than the first two weeks.
 
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