The Fastpitch Chronicle

Hello Fastpitch Enthusiasts,

Welcome to the first week day of Week #6 of the 2022 WIAA high school softball season. Although every day can be a great day for fastpitch in one way or another, this spring has been miserable to play games in.

Last week Jim Kivisto sent me and email to update his Coaches Honor Roll numbers. He informed me that this season will be his last as head coach at Hurley High School where he started the program 34 years ago. He also told me that as of last week they still had two feet, yes two feet of snow on their field. You can check out Jim’s coaching numbers by looking at the Coaches Honor Roll on this website. He along with all the other coaches who have reported their numbers are listed there. We also have the “unofficial state records” on this website.

As I type away on this Bulletin this evening, I sit in my back room office so-to-speak and watch it snow from all four directions at the same time. As it snows here and I look off to the northwest a bit toward Portage which is six miles from me.  I can see the clouds have broken up and I can see the sun hitting clouds to the east. It’s a crazy spring.

Brent Erdmann of New London has been posting some game summaries from that part of the state after I brought him into the Fastpitch Chronicle bold with some administrative rights on the website. Brent has been trying to accumulate rosters for all the teams in the state and has some difficulty getting cooperation in that regard. The other thing he has done is update my master list of head coach emails in the state. Late last week he informed me that the newest total of Head Coach changes since the end of the 2021 season numbers more than 70 now. Needless to say we haven’ heard much from many, if any of those coaches.

A small number of coaches in the state have been submitting short game summaries of their games and it’s always interesting to read their submissions. I’ve always thought that it is shame that more, short game recaps are not submitted.

If you do send a game summary to this website and want a photo of one of you players included just include a photo with your submission. I’ll add it to the summary as I have done with the Oak Creek vs Franklin summary last week when Riley Grudzielanek twirled a nifty, 16-strikeout no-hitter at Franklin. Check out the summary and the picture of Riley and also note the “in-action” photo that Jeff included that is one of the scrolling photos on the home page.

Here is a coaching, umpiring and scorekeeping tip – if a team is using the DP/Flex then the Flex must be on defense whenever her team is on defense. She must, by rule be out there and if she is not there has been either an unreported substitution or an illegal substitution (which is possible but doubtful). The Flex can’t be sitting on the bench or in the dugout when her team is on defense without a substitution reported. In all my days as a head coach I only ran into one or maybe two umpires who always checked every half inning whether a Flex player was in the game or not.

Have a great week and do some warm weather dancing to bring it on.

Until Bulletin #6
Keep it Rising!

Bob