3A West game 2 - East Rowan 17 South Point 2

Pitching rules

4 innings would be his max i believe?

 

it's my opinion that the kid would rather have a sore arm and ice his arm for a few days and have the state championship to look forward to next weekend than have his arm feel fine and his season be over. if it gets to the point where he is going to do serious damage to his arm he's got to tell the coaching staff about his pain way before it gets this serious. if the coaching staff doesn't feel that the player will be honest with them, then he shouldnt pitch. but if they trust his word they've simply GOT to throw him from a baseball point of view. i'll go out on a limb and say they lose the series either way, but it wont be a contest if he doesn't throw any.

he probably wont be eligible to pitch the entire game anyway. i just think he should pitch however many innings he's allowed to go.

 

Pitching Matchups

South Point is starting Weston Lawing (8-1) and East is supposed to start Justin Roland (4-0 0.90). I say suppose, because Hightower often likes to offer up info then go in a complete opposite direction. With that in mine, East has Kent Basinger and Trey Holmes available as well on full rest.

 

Two things come to mind about starting the game one pitcher:

- Conley's Aubrey Edens was a stud. They pitched him in a complete game on Friday and again on Saturday (Alex White was injured). The kid received all kinds of kudos for his effort, including leading his team to the State Championship and collecting the NC POY award......his arm has never been the same since.

- 2008 Charlotte Christian was playing for their 8th consecutive State Championship. They were leading in the championship game 4-1, I believe in the 3rd or 4th inning. It would have probably secured their championship by bringing in their star ace, Luke Bard(Who threw 75 pitches the previous day). Their coach commented, "The kid has many more games to pitch including college. I'm not going to risk his future"...they lost.

 

What if it were your son?

Its easy to say "If he says he feels fine I would leave it up to him." What if your son pitched a complete game and was headed to play in college the next year and the coach asked him if he wanted the ball on one days rest? Its easy to say run him out there if he feels fine when its not your kid.

Matt Harrison just threw a no hitter in Double AA. You think thats more important for him or that state playoff game when he was 17? He never threw on less than 4 days rest. It would have been real easy to run him back out there in the second round on two days rest. Of course he wanted the ball. Of course he would have said he felt fine.

 

Not sure about high school, but the pitching limit in legion is 12 innings in 72 hours. But that is a lot to throw 12 innings within 3 days and you don't see it very often, except when the state tournament comes around.

I agree with Coach, after going 8 innings just 2 nights ago, if it were my son, or even YOURS, I wouldn't do it. Don't really have a problem with one inning maybe in a critical situation, but no more. He would definitely not go out there for a 2nd inning, but thats just me.

Good Luck to both teams.

 

Isn t "Hightower" the coach at East now? Previously for years at Statesville? I think so..he is very knowleadgeable x and o's etc... Competed against him at the coaching level while at NI! South Point has a lot of tradition hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

Yes Oriole, same Hightower, he's one of the best coaches in this immediate area. When he got the job at East Rowan (a baseball hotbed year in year out), it was a great combination.

 

that s a fact.....

knew this but wanted to make sure! He does know his baseball and turned out a great SS when I was at North who I coached in the "west" state games I believe his name was David Admans maybe signed a schoolly with UNC G never followed how things turned out with him but boy he was a stuuuuuud at the plate!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I understand your argument about the kid's parents. Thats why I'll repeat, if they can't trust the kid to be honest about his arm then they can't do it. But if they trust him and if he's fine, you've got to pitch him. The other players on the team want to win a state championship. If the only thing that will happen to his arm is that it may be sore for a couple days, that's worth the reward of giving yourselves a chance to win the game. If his arm is already sore and might cause serious injury to him then he shouldn't pitch.

It's very idealistic to assume that the other pitchers can win the game tonite for South Point, but everyone involved knows thats probably not true. Arrowood did similar things to this last year for RS Central and he's still pitching fine. It's not like this kid is guaranteed to have arm problems if he throws 4 innings tonight. Spencer Fagan pitched 11 innings in 2 days and Alex White pitched 10 innings in 2 days, like Wossa said. This kid had a day's rest inbetween game 1 and game 3. Like I said, I bet East Rowan is salivating over whoever South Point's #3 pitcher might be. If South Point doesnt throw the ace, its going to be the East Rowan Mustangs vs the Rocky Mount Gryphons in the finals. Might be the case anyways, cause even if they do pitch Horne they're going to have to get 3 innings out of their other pitching.