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The Fastpitch Bulletin, Volume 22, Number 8 - April 21, 2022

04/21/2022, 10:15pm CDT
By Bob Tomlinson - Publisher

Handling a pitching staff can be difficult

Hello Fastpitch Players, coaches and fans of the game

Way, way back in the beginning of time in WIAA softball annals, high school softball coaches had to be good at handling a team when more than one pitchers was required. 

Yes, for all you young players, young coaches and young parents and fans, there was a time when high school softball had the same pitching limitations that baseball did. You had to have more than one pitcher when it came time for the WIAA state tournament series. 

It was not all that tough before the tournament started because the WIAA office staff, the Coaches Advisory committee, the Advisory Council and ultimately the Board of Control limited softball teams to just 12 regular season games in the same amount of weeks and day as teams can now play 26 games. 

The pitching rule involved limited number of innings in one day or over several days. 

Take a look at the scores from the original state tournament games played at four-diamond slowpitch softball with grass infields at Saratoga Complex in Waukesha. The state tournament was a one-class event for the first thre years (1976-1977 and 1978) before bumping up to two classes in 1979, three classes in 1981 and when WISAA folded up lock stock and barrel after the 2000 season it took just one year with those added teams in 2001 before the WIAA expanded to four divisions in 2002. I remember 2002 very well. It stayed at 4 divisions until 2017 when it went to the current 5 divisions.

In the first state title game it was a David and Goliath event with Madison West coached by Sue McDermott beating tiny little Elmwood coached by William Huber by a score of 27-8. In year two Elmwood, then under the Tutelage of WFSCA Hall of Famer Jerry Cognetta beat Sheboygam South coached by Kay Kreutzman. A team from Sheboygan has never made it back to the quarter final level of the state tournament in the state's largest school division. That score was 15-13 with "David beating Goliath." In year three, another tiny town with a good ball club coached by a Hall of Famer in Darrel Laschen beat a Goliath again , this time Madison LaFollette coached by Ken Roberts. It was the first time that a female head coach did not coach a team in the state final. 

I do not remember the exact year that pitchers were no longer restricted to a certain number of innings but instantly many coaches found themselves using just one pitcher for every inning the team played. It still goes that way with a 26-game schedule. Over the years many head coaches told me that they didn't want more than one pitcher because it was easier managing just one chucker. 

Today SPASH used three hurlers in a game against Wisconsin Rapids. 

Making a decision in tight games about making a pitching change puts the person in charge in a quandry. Wait too long and the game could be blown open or make the change and the second pitcher allows runs and takes the loss or fails to hold the save. 

An important part of handling more than one chucker is the keen ability to know and understand the starter. What do her stats against good teams look like in later innings? Does the #2 pitcher have the mental wherewithal to come into a game in tight situations. Can she make pitches rather than just throw pitches. The entire scenario can cause a loss of sleep the night after a game where things went poorly and a loss of sleep caused by andrenaline when that reliever does the job for her team. 

In 2005 our team went unbeaten in 26 games. We had a junior pitcher who went 13-0 and senior pitcher who went 13-0. We started the year out by flipping a coin on which would start the first game of the season and rotated every game. When we got to the sectional semi-final the senior pitched with the junior on the pitcher's plate in the sectional final. At Goodman diamond the senior won the semi-final on a one-hitter on a perfectly placed bunt single for the only baserunner of the game. In the state final the junior struck out 13 in a row and allowed just her second earned run of the season, Those two pitchers combined to strikeout more batters than any other single pitcher or pitching staff in the state that season. 

Another interesting fact about that 2005 state tournament is this. In 2004 we had three dominate pitchers. A freshman, a sophomore and a freshman. Horicon beat us in the regional final by a run that year in Horicon in a great game. At the end of the season I talked with the freshman pitcher who had been unbeaten on the JV team. When she was young (8) her father brought her to see me to learn to pitch. Due to some issues she chose school choice and left the Portage school district for her 8th grade year and then her freshman year. After that freshman season I advised her to go back to Portage and told her she was more than good enough to win a Division 2 state title for Portage. She made the choice to go back up there. In 2005, pitching for Portage with some top notch players behind her and a great coaching staff, that pitcher pitched Portage to that Division 2 state tournament title. In the end she carried them back to the Final Four as senior following an injury plagued junior season. In the end she received a full athletic scholarsip at Seton Hall. 

The junior pitcher from 2005 injured the tissue between her scapula and ribs and had to shut down. We used four different pitchers that year, three in every game we played and made it back to the state tournament, ultimately getting beat by a great Grantsburg team after we had our flame thrower back and heated up ready to go. Alas, the game ahead of us was between Sevastopol and Lancaster. Sevastopol rallied late and forced extra innings. Our pitcher was ready to go if the game ahead of us had ended like most thought it was going to, but we were on a pitch count from the medical staff with our top notch thrower. We couldn't keep her throwing through those extra innings and once we shut her down her velocity never got back to where it was while she was warming up. She just could not get really loose. Hats of to Grantsburg though. We didn't score enough runs to beat them if she had been healthy but they may not have scored that many either.

The bottom line is we lost 2 games that season using five different pitchers and we beat some very, very good teams and teams from big cities with from big schools. 

If your team has more than one pitcher keep this in mind. Making pitching changes is a big deal for everyone involned. The head coach, the starting pitcher and the relievers adn some of the parents and fans. The starter normally does not want to leave the game and the relievers, if they have been "seasoned to be a reliever" are chomping on the bit, so to speak, to get in there and do the job. Of course there are people behind the sideline fences who have their thoughts on things as well. If things go badly after making a change the questions are out there. 

Hey, put me in coach, I'm ready to play, today, look at me, I'm out here in the pen!

I pitched at LaCrosse State University and two years at UW-LaCrosse (UW System merged my junior year). I worked out of the bullpen most of the time. I was always "chomping on the bit to get the call" and got it often. It was a great time saving games for our starters, Jerry Augustine from Kewaunae, later a MLB pitcher for the Brewers and Yankees, Chuck Sedevie and hard throwing righthander from Coon Valley, Larry Madsen a flame thrower with a major league breaking ball from Milwuakee and Ken Buege a top notch starter from New Albin, Iowa. But, I did not save them all either. Those experiences helped giving  me an understanding of handling a pitching staff. 

Sometime I'll tell you the story of how a Poynette pitcher was the pitcher of record in the Division 2 state championship game of 1998, in Waukesha by throwing just one pitch --  the final pitch of the top of the 10th inning with us down by one run. It's a great story that involves a skill that many high school coaches never use. 

On another note about DP/Flex. I had several conversations and emails from coaches and umpires about last night's diatribe on the topic. This evening I gave one of our youth coaches a one-on-one clinic on various ways to use the DP/Flex to his advantage with a youth team. Just remember, the Flex player must be in the field when her team is on defense and if she is not out there, then is something fishy is going on out there. 

Have a great day!
Keep it Rising!
Bob

Tag(s): Bulletins