Coaches Corner for May 1st: Bob Ligouri, DMACC Softball

Joining us on KWBG, you're going to talk some DMACC softball with head coach Bob Legoria as the Bears get a chance to host the Region 11 B tournament this weekend and coach it's that time of the year where and you said it perfectly we're just kind of visiting off air about this but it's such a longer season because you've been playing games that that count since February but boy all of a sudden I mean it's it's end of the regular season it's post season it's district tournaments world series it's seniors or excuse me sophomores will will wish you the best and freshmen will get ready to do it all over again I mean it's a busy time of year for you guys it really is because you know at the same time they're actually going to school you know finals so it uh you know it's an interesting dynamic because you're really excited when there's snow on the ground to get started and then all of a sudden you know there kind of is a plateau a little bit and then at the end it just flies because everything happens to the players I mean their their school gets done they have finals and now you know it's crunch time as far as the game so exciting but busy I know obviously the the the first thing up is northeast Nebraska and and that's the the name of the game but having a chance to host the Region 11 B tournament that's a big deal still Bob it sure is and we're really excited to do it and this year I tell you what the you know there are so many good teams in in the Iowa region you know people on a national scale say that the Iowa region may be from top to bottom the very best softball region in the nation for the Division two level so I mean we've got three other really good teams that have had excellent seasons and have good players so it's going to be really good softball we're really going to have to play if we you know if we want to come out of it that's for sure Bob obviously the sophomores have gone through this they understand what it's like to have to play in the the Region 11 tournament because these are teams that you've seen quite a bit over the season what about the freshmen do you have conversations with them coach about how tournament times a little bit different than the regular season or the thing that the thing that you know we want to make sure is that the freshmen keep the game slow and you know don't get caught up in all the hype hopefully you know hopefully the sophomores can you know give them a strong base and in a great role model so that they don't get too excited and they don't get caught up in the moment and you know we preach all year about process over outcomes and worry about you know the next pitch and things like that but when you get to tournament time it's a little bit different in the sense that the outcomes will control it because you know if you if you're not successful you're done so you know for young players that's you know giving that balance is so critical and we need that's why you have to have really good sophomores that provide the right role model because coaches really can't you know we're around them maybe a couple hours a day but they live with each other and they're very very close as friends so it's really what they give to each other right now I know I was looking at team stats because I'm always kind of interested how you're ranking and where you're kind of sitting out in the conference and I know the nation is important too but like you talked about this conference has been so good this year I think there's six teams that are easily over 500 going into the postseason but I was looking at a couple of stats that I thought were kind of interesting coach maybe not hitting the long ball like you have in the past but boy your extra base hits are still up this season Bob tell me about that a little bit well I think you we have a lot of you know contact hitters you know in the past we've had some people and we still have you know a couple of players that that you know can go deep you know pretty consistently but we have a lot more contact hitters and they've really bought into you know you know put you know handing the baton off to the next player and stuff so you know it's been really fun I think we lead the lead the region in batting average and we lead the region in you know in in runs scored so it's you know there's a lot of different ways to score runs and this team has found a way to be successful well something else that you've done and and this has been I still think I know getting runs in is the number one thing but I still feel like people always underrate your pitching staff and I've been watching them the last couple of weeks coach and I mean this is a team that has I think I if I remember right 10 shutouts on the air maybe it's a little bit more even than that but your batting average that you're giving up is under 200 which is just fantastic the earned run average continues to drop as the season has progressed and your schedule hasn't gotten much easier I mean this pitching staff Bob if they sleep on this pitching staff in this postseason I got a feeling you got a couple more shutouts that could be coming if they're not paying attention well I have a lot of confidence in all of our pitchers and you know Dana Heller and Bayley Richards have really really worked well together as coaches and developed the pitchers and uh you know with Kiera Jungers and Jackie Boss and and bomb uh Brooklyn Baumgartner um those three have really really done a great job for us and uh you know uh it's just it's just been really it's been really fun to watch them develop defensively coach this was something you and I talked about I remember when we did our first coaches corner a couple of months ago or so and it was like we wanted to see the consistency and get better defensively because you can always score runs you and you're going to give up runs it's just going to happen when you play good competition but we just don't want to give them up by by giving them free runners I feel like this defense has done a nice job here the last month or so yeah the you know we've really improved and I guess that is coaches you know is you know what you always want is that you're you know that the curve's going up and not down you know our defense has has gotten better we've moved players around and tried to move different situations to try to put each player in the right position that they can have the the best positive impact on everybody and and you know we're you know we really we really improved that is really amazing to me I actually given the competition and things like that that we started out with this year that our team has the best deep team defensive average in in the conference and I was a little bit surprised by that but it's actually better this year than it was a year ago and that's a credit to the improvement that the that the players have made that they've really worked hard at it 16 and two at home this season coach not many teams come to boon and find their way to get one if not you know a couple of wins it's that give the girls even a little bit more confidence knowing that you get to sleep in your own bed you just walk across the way and there's my field well I tell you what Brian I don't know if you knew this or not but we only played 12 of our first 54 games at home you were road warriors my friend so it's been so much fun for us just to be able to go up on the hill and and and play at our place so yeah absolutely it's been you know DMACC for since 2012 we've always you know played well in boon you know it's been a you know we haven't lost a whole lot of games and I think the big reason is is because the comfort and we have great loyal fans that come out and that makes a big difference for us Bob want to wish you guys the best of luck this weekend thanks as always for some time we'll talk again real soon thanks Ryan you bet DMACC a softball head coach Bob Ligori joining us on coaches corner