skip navigation

The Fastpitch Bulletin, Volume 14, Number 13 for 5/16/14

04/16/2014, 8:45pm CDT
By Bob Tomlinson

Talking Turkey and other fastpitch conversations

Still openings in Poynette Summer Jamboree, especially at 10-Under level

Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!

Hello Fastpitch World!

My day started at 4:00 a.m. and by 5:00 a.m. my decoys were all set and I was situated comfortably in a blind so the turkeys could not see me. At 5:32 a.m. the gobbling started and continued until about 6:05. At that point we figured the birds were on the ground. Then, a hen yelped off to our left and suddenly came running right into our set up. She stuck around until she spotted a couple of strutting, mature toms about 100 yards to the east of the blind. She ran towards them looking for some attention but alas, our jake decoy and two hens caught the toms' attention and they were intent on beating the daylights out of that all too confident young jake. Those two birds along with a third subordinate tom hustled right on down to us, spun around a few times and thought things were a little suspicious. They were too late to realize they'd made a mistake. The one on the left will be eaten on Sunday as part of an Easter Dinner.

So it seems like I've been up all day -- because -- I have been up all day.

I had a great chat with a fastpitch enthusiast from the greater Milwaukee area today. The chat lasted more than a half hour as we conversed back and forth. I'm pretty sure we enjoyed the conversation equally as much.

I noticed in the Wisconsin State Journal today that Beloit Turner Junior picher Kelsie Packard tossed a no-hitter earlier this season against Brodhead, a 5-0 win, that did not get reported. I've added her to the list as well as a no-hitter by Katie Schlegel, a junior at New Berlin Eisenhower over Shorewood with six  strikeouts and two walks. Schlegel also had a grand slam home run in an Ike win over St. Francis by a 15-0 score. She has verbally committed to play at UW-Green Bay after graduation.

Here is a situation for you that took place in a game in the Green Bay area recently. A young leftfielder, a freshman, knew to raise her hands when the ball in play became lodged in the fence. She unfortunately did this with the ball in her right hand! It was a learning experience! It ended up being a lead-off triple as their runner correctly kept going; we did get the ball in to keep her at third and we actually were able to get out of the inning without her advancing. Later in the same game, we hit a ball which also became lodged in the bottom area of the outfield fence. The  outfielder correctly raised her hands and we kept our runners going, eventually the lead runner and the batter/runner crossed home plate. Now the interesting part. After correctly raising her hands and after the umpire raised his hands to go out and check the ball situation the outfielder panicked, picked the ball up before the umpire arrived and threw it in. The umpire ruling was that as the fielder picked the ball up and it could not be observed in the fence it again became live and the runners were each ruled safe at home. The explanation made sense to me but that does not mean it is correct.

Last year was the worst one in my first 35 years of being involved in high school fastpitch softball. This year seems to be matching the frustration levels of the previous season. More snow last night in the north and more expected again tonight. There is a silver lining according to one northwoods head coach. He told me today in an e-mail that when I go north to our cabin in the woods I can expect to see lake levels back to where they were years ago. "The snow cover will be good for the drought up here but now the drought is really the lack of days to play softball before the clocks runs out the third week of May,"

Getting a full schedlule of games in between now and the opening day of the WIAA tournament will be really tough. It will even be tough in the southern half of the state if there are more days like yesterday.

In the Poynette at New Glarus game yesterday there was one illegal pitch called for an illegal crow hop. The pitcher called for the illegal pitch fixed her delivery quickly and finished the game illegal pitch free.

Schools entered in the Poynette Jamboree or at least those that think they are entered should check the list of teams I have posted at this website to make sure I have you on the list. It's the master list that I will use to start scheduling on Thursday.

Speaking of fastpitch jamborees, the Poynette Summer Fastpitch Jamboree scheduled for June 20-22 has openings in 10-U, 12-U, 14-U and 16-U levels. The 10-U has a lot of room for teams to still get in. For information you an click here . There is a reduced entry fee right now so check it out.

I'd guess there are quite a few games on the docket for Thursday. Remember that you can send game summaries to me to be posted. Also, entering scores and stats on wissports is just one way coaches can promote the sport as well as their players and teams.

Have a great fastpitch day!

Keep it Rising!

Bob

 

Tag(s): Bulletins