1 Pitcher Concept

What is the reasoning with only using 1 pitcher all through the year and not getting your 2 or 3 pitcher any work,seems to me like taking 2 guns to a gunfight and only loading 1,i know there are some great pitchers out there i just can't understand only using 1,,,it really hurt 1 team in the states this year when they lost one the best in the state to injury and the 2 pitcher got hardly no work this year...just food for thought

 

Before someone jumps on this, I believe you meant they lost one of the best in the state ...

 

To win the State Championship, the least you have to do is win 3 games within a 24 hour time period, and from the loser's bracket, I believe you can possibly play 5 games in that time period.

It's definitely an advantage to have 2 or 3 pitchers that can compete at the level needed.

 

One perspective

High school innings are the LEAST important innings a potential college pitcher will ever throw. Unfortunately, some coaches and parents don't understand this. IMHO HS softball pitchers should be treated almost like baseball pitchers; limiting innings. I've seen a number of HS stars who were either mentally of physically finished before they ever got to campus including a couple from some pretty well-known HS programs in this state.

I don't think there's any "right thing to do" but I know that overuse injuries occur in college pitchers at epidemic rates. You don't hear about most because these kids involved just 'go away'. If your goal is to be the 'greatest pitcher in the history my high school' then have at it. But if your goals lie beyond 'dear old fill-in-the-blank high school' then it would be well to consider sharing the pitching duties for at least some of those four years.

 

When you put all your eggs in one basket.......

Coaches that prepare the team for that "what if" moment, find that it pays off when you need it. It does seem that most teams in high school have gone to that ride one pitcher approach. Some do it to chase stats and records.

Two teams in recent memory that didn't use the 1 pitcher approach and won state titles were Butler (Ashton Ward/Emily Jeffery), and last years North Davidson team (Hannah Alexander/Tess Swing). That seems like a rarity these days.

 

History show that . . . .

Most state champions rely almost exclusively on one pitcher at the Creek. However there are different ways of getting there. 3A MVP Sarah Christian had thrown only 5 seven inning games prior to this past weekend. She shared the pitching duties during the season.

 

Don't mean to change the subject, anyone know how she is doing and does anyone know, what actually went in her knee, was it her ACL??

 

Bug is fine,saw the doctor yesterday.She hyper-extended her knee,xrays showed nothing wrong.She will be going to an orthopedist this week just to be safe.Couple days of ice and Advil and it's feeling better.Feel blessed this could have been bad.

 

My DD's high school used one pitcher this season also. My DD pitched her freshman & sophmore years, won the coaches award and was all conference both years and sat the bench this year because her head coach's travel ball pitcher got all the pitching time, but last year under a different head coach that pitcher only pitched two innings all year. My daughter sat the bench this year so the coach could pad the stats of his travel ball pitcher, and would pitch her back to back games so our HS team could beat teams 15 to 0. The coach also told my daughter she no longer had the skills yet her batting average was .500 but fewer plate appearances than anyone on the team and when she did pitch maybe less than 15 innings this season, he would get mad at her if she threw a bad pitch. I hope his TB pitcher can last all summer, after throwing back to back games in HS she was having to work with the trainer with her pitching arm, while my daughter would warm up 3 times during a game and never get to play.