The Fastpitch Chronicle

And There’s New Grass On The Field

Hello Fastpitch fans,

I have been perusing the scores statewide from yesterday and trying to figure out why teams won and why teams lost, other than one team scored more runs than the other one. When ranking teams wins and losses are important but knowing why and how they won or lost must be factored in as well. 

For instance -- without game reports it’s impossible to know important facts unless I contact the coaches and I hate to bother head coaches because I often hear,”I don’t have time to do all that stuff. I’m just too busy.”

So some questions that need answers include” 1) Did a team use the girl they believe to be their #1 kid or did they use a different pitcher in a loss? 2) This year a factor is COVID quarantine and that is huge 3) how many games did they play on a day they lost -- yesterday the teams in Chippewa had to play three games and that’s a tougher deal than most think.

The Fastpitch Chronicle rankings will be updated Monday. If you’d like to submit a list of your top 10 teams in the division you follow feel free to email them to me at faspich1@gmail.com. They will be considered for sure.

Last night I covered The Rule of First Touching (tagging up) and promised another sour tagging up play that did not go so well for our team. Here is that one. 

In 2015 we made it back to the state tournament for the first time since 2012. We beat Lomira in the bottom of the seventh on the only walk-off home run in the history of the WIAA State Tournament at Goodman Diamond by Dani Treinen. We were 29-2 when the state Division 3 Championship game started. We were a solid team at every position and up and down the lineup and senior laden. We were playing Laconia and a darn tough chucker in Kayla Schwebke (later UW-Green Bay). Laconia entered the game at 28-3.

Going into the game I figured that we’d strikeout 12 or 13 times but I also was confident that we’d move the ball and get 6-8 hits so it would be a matter of stringing them together and not one hit per inning. Our kids had faced Kayla indoors several times and had shown that they could move the ball against her. 

In the third we muffed a couple of plays and gave them an unearned run so our job got tougher. In the fourth their six hitter hit the first pitch for a double and she later scored on a single by the #9 batter so we were down 2-0. Our #4 hitter opened the sixth with a single and we moved her to second with a sacrifice bunt. Our catcher was next up. She drew a four-pitch base on balls and I inserted a courtesy runner who was one of the two fastest base runners we had in my 41 years as head coach. However, she was a sophomore, a really good player and would become one of our greatest players ever but she had been playing on the JV team her first two years because our current seniors were really good. Afterall, several had played in the state tournament as freshmen, in the sectional semi as sophomores and the sectional final where they were nipped 2-1 by Arcadia who beat Laconia in the 2014 title game 1-0. With runners on first and second our first sacker stood in and took a ball to the arm and the bases were loaded with one out. I reminded the runner at third about the Rule of First Touching and told the runner at second to be sure not to listen to me on a ball in the air and do what she would need to do to be a great base runner on a flyball to the outfield. We practice that base running constantly and when at second not to listen to the third base coach who is talking only to the runner at third. Our #8 batter hit a 2-2 pitch out into short left field and about 15’ from the foul line. When the ball left the bat I shouted “Tag!” to the runner at third. The ball fell in and we were pulling to within one and going to tie the game with all that speed at second because there would be no throw to home. I turned to take over the coaching job with the runner at second and she was only half way to third. She’d gone back and tagged when she heard my voice. She would have tied the game at 2-all but instead she died at third when our #9 hitter didn’t get a squeeze fair on two tries and popped out to first and our leadoff batter struck out. 

Our plan going in was to force Kayla Schwebke to throw a lot of pitches. I wanted to get her up to 75 pitches by the end of the fourth inning. I figured we’d move the ball in the final three innings. After four innings we had her at 71. We had the bricks filled in the fifth after the first two kids went down swinging.and she had to throw 30 more pitches to get out of the fifth. That put her at 101. She threw 23 more in the fateful baserunning sixth. In the seventh after a pop out to third we took another 60 mph missile to the body without moving. Our #4 hitter, who had hit a walk-off bomb just before midnight the night before to beat Lomira single for her second hit off Schwebke and we had the tying run at second and lead run at first. Schwebke worked her way out of it with a strikeout to our #5 bater and a roller to first to end the game. We’d seen her throw 142 pitches. We just needed one more hit --- that 8th one I was looking for.

 It would be the fourth state runnerup trophy our program would take home.    

Not just any tag up story -- right? 

I did a bunch more Fastpitch Chronicle Award Certificates tonight so let me know about your players’ first-ever home run, all Grand Slams, walk-off home runs, Big hit days with five or more hits, no hitters, perfect games, triple plays and maybe even more.

Have a great week.
Keep it Rising!
Bob