The Fastpitch Chronicle

They should fall in sequential or chronological order!

I'm referring to the numbers on the daily Fastpitch Softball News Bulletins. Last night in haste I misnumbered the Bulletin as #14 when really it was #13. I didn't do it on purpose but I am really surprised that nobody sent me an e-mail letting me know the numbers were incorrect. I thought for sure there would be a couple or a few that would let me know. Nobody did though. Now they are renumbered and are in sequential order.

I met with Travis from the Wisconsin Sports Network this morning for two and half hours as he was going through the ins and outs of how to post game results on the wissports.net site as well as inservicing me on how to build the Fastpitch Chronicle dot net site that we will be launching in the near future. I'm not sure, however just how many days constitute the term "near future." When the new site is launched you will notice some changes and hopefully you will find them improvements. The look of the site will sort of "mirror" the wissports.net site but the content on fastpitchchronicle dot net will be the same content that appears on this one now. You'll have to bear with me as I muster my way through the process. I guarantee you however, that the information will be like it is on this site now. I've udpated the Coaches Honor Roll on the site and I've started adding in the bulletins, the game summaries, the State Softball Records etc. It will take a me while.

Here in this part of Columbia County we had -- no I'm not going to talk about the weather.

On Saturday, weather and diamond conditions permitting Thorp and Stratford will play a doubleheader in Poynette beginning at 3:00 PM. If there is another school or two that would like to play games here on Saturday just let Brad Ceranski at Thorp know. Poynette is scheduled to be playing at Watertown Luther Prep in a twinbill on Saturday morning so the fields here are available. We aren't charging anyone to use the place unless we have to use some diamond dry and line chalk of course. You can contact me as well if you are interested in some games on Saturday.

In Minnesota a coach or some coaches have asked the state association office to extend the spring sports seasons by two weeks. They don't expect to get any movement in that direction though. When you think about it, extending the season could really throw a wrench in many people's plans and schedules. People who have trips planned durign that time span, players who might be leaving for military duty at that time etc. would all be affected and so would the schools and teams they compete for.

Last year I wrote a bulletin about the difference in the regular season length between Division 1 and the other three divisions of play. Apparently it didn't set too well with some Division 1 coaches but a fact is a fact so don't shoot the messenger. The Division 2, 3 and 4 regular season ends on May 15th because the regional level begins on Tuesday, May 16th whereas the Division 1 regionals begin on May 21st. That means that there are four extra days in there that Division 1 teams can play makeup games from this miserable weather or they could have even and probably did schedule games on that Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Monday. If they were to play a doubleheader on Thursday and Friday and three games on Saturday in an event that would seven more games that they could get in that the Division 2, 3 and 4 teams can't. If they played again on Monday the 20th that's another game or two they can get in. In this season, that could a major difference in the number of games played. It's just the fact!

It is true that after seeding meetings the Division 2, 3 and 4 teams with first round byes could get in that same number of games if they could find someone else that have byes to play or find Division 1 teams looking to get games in. The teams that figure they are shoo-in for a bye can jump on that information if they haven't already and those that didn't think about have something to think about now.

In the Lakeland Conference they are playing doubeheaders but only the first game of the twinbill now counts as a conference game. In the Capitol Conference, a conference with two divisions of six teams each plays each of the other teams in the other division one time each year.As of today the cross-over games will not count this year toward the North and the South Division conference titles. There are some other stipulations that go with the "emergency vote" of the 12 principals too. For example: Capitol Conference schools must make every effort to play all Capitol contests, but this gives them some room to maybe move a cross-over down the schedule to another date and play a divisional game in it's place. They figure this might come in handy in case the Saturday round of doubleheaders scheduled in the confernce gets washed out. The schools were also told that Capitol Conference cross-overs contests that may get canceled/moved down the road should be played instead of a non-Capitol opponent.

I'm sure there are other "emergency provisons" that other conferences have gone with. I'd be intereseted in hearing what they are so they can be shared with everyone statewide.

After watching a liner zip past the head of a pitcher recently and a couple of shots dart past third sackers I've chosen to join the ranks of coaches who are requiring their pitchers and at least their corners to wear a defensive mask. One of our pitchers took a liner off the front of her ankle on Saturday in that cold weather. She didn't stand a chance of getting a glove on it and she toppled to the infield dirt like, well ... like she'd been hit with a missle. It was a missle off the bat of an excellent hitter using a high tech bat. I've required mouthguards since a game in 2007 and will continue to require mouthguards but will now require defensive face masks for the corners. If I had budget money enough left I'd buy one for every positon in the infield. I think it's going to be an across the board safety rule in the very near futrue as well. Take a look at fastpitchsports.com and read the article written by the mother of a collegiate player who got hit in the forehead by a batted ball and take special note of the story the pictures of her tell. The masks are not cheap but 45 bucks is a cheap insurance plan for teeth, noses, and faces. I know they look silly to some old timers and purists but so did face masks on helmets and the young players now don't even realize that until 2006 they weren't required. Just as they don't realize that the balls were once white and that bats were wooden, that the pitcher's plate was actually only 40 feet away from home plate or that catcher's never wore helmets or that bats never had to pass a safety test. They just think it's always been that way. A combination of defensive face masks and mouthguards will go a long way in reducing the number of serious injuries.

In action yesterday Emma Roenneberg of Adams-Friendship twirled a seven-inning no-hitter against Westfield while Taylor Haines of Arcadia tossed one at the Old Abes of Eau Claire Memorial. Both have had their names added to the 2013 No-Hitter List and I have sent their coaches Fastpitch Chronicle No-Hit Certificates to commemorate their achievements.