UT signee hangs cleat vs Wewahitchka

March 23, 2008



[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Injury ends prep career for UT softball signee[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]By JEFF LOCKRIDGE[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Staff Writer[/FONT]

Pitcher Cat Hosfield's storied softball career in a Riverdale uniform is over.

The Tennessee signee — owner the nation's single-season high school strikeout record of 659 set last year — fractured her left ankle in two places Friday night during a game in Ocala, Fla.

Hosfield will have surgery this week to reset the ankle and expects to be out at least 12 weeks. The state championships are in nine weeks.

The injury occurred on a pop-up slide on Hosfield's double in the top of the first inning against Forest (Fla.).

When Hosfield attempted to bounce up, her metal cleats gripped the dirt and second base and did not give.

This is the first year metal cleats have been allowed in Tennessee high school softball.
"It all comes back to the metal cleats," Riverdale Coach Jeff Breeden said. "Before the injury, I liked us having them. But if these guys are doing a pop-up slide, they better not pop up. When her cleat hung, it broke the bones instead of rolling the ankle."
After Hosfield was taken to a hospital, her parents drove her 10 hours through the night to see Dr. Damon Petty, an orthopedic surgeon at Baptist Hospital, who will perform the operation.

"They can fix it up and she can play summer ball and she can play at UT," said her mother, Anne. "We called (UT co-head coach Ralph Weekly) and he doesn't seem worried about it. She just can't finish her senior season, which stinks. She feels like she let her team down. She's the only senior on the team."

Last season Hosfield pitched Riverdale to its first state tournament, where she broke the national strikeout record of 657 in the Lady Warriors' final game — a 6-1 loss to Mt. Juliet in the Class AAA consolation final.

Hosfield was the primary reason Riverdale was ranked as high as No. 11 in a preseason national poll and was favored to win the Class AAA title this year. Junior Bre Thomas is expected to take over the pitching load.

Riverdale (13-3) returns home Tuesday, having concluded a three-game stretch against Florida's top teams. The Lady Warriors lost to Forest and Zephyrhills after Hosfield's injury. Hosfield struck out 17 and hit a home run in a 2-0 win over Wewahitchka in her final Riverdale pitching performance Thursday.

"There were a lot of tears shed," Breeden said. "Cat is going to pitch another day. Just not for us."

 

OUCH

Yikes, that hurts just to think about it. My DD does the same thing too, she pops up most of the time and is wearing metal. UGGGGGG

 

I was sorry when the state ok'ed the use of steel cleats, when everone uses molded cleats, then all things are equeal, the excuse most used is, well when they go to college they will be in use, well it takes about a half of a practice to get use to steel cleats, well the percentage of girls using them when in college is about 10% or less of the High School players that will be wearing them
As far as the sliding bit, let the college coaches teach them, as they practice about ten times as much as high school and tb teams do.....

And we haven't started hearing about the cuts on the shins, feet, and hands yet from the use of metal cleats...

 

Wow!....A pop-up slide......

......into a base is a cool way of "arriving" at the bag before the runner actually does. If this slide is used properly, the results are nice. In order to "pop-up", a runners folded/tucked back sliding leg forces down. Not the front foot slamming into the ground, stopping the motion of the runner. All that being said, I hate the fact that any kid gets hurt. But, as polite as I can here, I'll ask this for learning purposes about metal cleats and/or how to slide.........If the shoe has plastic cleats on the heal, would this type of injury happen even when a possible awkward slide takes place? Or if a metal spike shoe placed only on the front of the foot and plastic/molded on the heal, would that prevent this type of injury? ......Focus only on the difference between metal Vs. molded on the heal,.....and how to properly execute a pop-up slide please. Thanks, best wishes to all.

 

I hate to hear this, anytime. Hope all turns out well for those involved. As for the molded/metal debate....you could conjecture that back and forth from now till the cows come home.

 

I wonder why we don't hear this debate in the baseball forum. They have used metal cleats forever..... just wondering....

I hate this young lady got hurt and I look forward to her dominating at Tennessee.

 

Its a different game with many similar characteristics.
It's a game that has grown up not using metal cleats.

When I was a kid, we wore metal cleats in Little League,
but youth softball has never seen metal cleats.

If the sport is destined to wear metal cleats, why start with High School and not ASA 18U first. It would seem that if it was necessary then the top softball organizations would be the first to bring cleats to the younger athletes and not High School. When they brought metal cleats to High School, they automatically included athletes as young as 14. Do you think ASA, NSA or AAU would put metal cleats on those program ages - I dont think they ever would.

We limit performance in many aspects of softball in the name of safety, for example, we control bats extensively, we wear face masks on batting helmets and many infielders are wearing masks.

I think HS Softball jumped the gun on Metal Cleats.

 

When I grew up, we were not allowed to wear metal cleats until we reached high school. I did not realize little league baseball allows it now, but when I played, you didn't wear them until high school.

There are going to be injuries with metal cleats, and there are going to be injuries with molded cleats.

 

They dont... you have to know that: "when I was a kid" was 35 years ago....

But it shows how things evolve.

 

Was a pop up safety base being used? Would it have made a difference?