South Caldwell vs. Charlotte Christian GAME PREVIEW

Red Bear, I'm with PhillyDave on this one...you can dominate the weaker hitter with the 85+ fastball, the better hitters are going to adjust. You have got to have a 2nd or 3rd pitch to keep them off stride...

 

Pitching

Having watched both Bumgarner and Bard this weekend, I will say this, the dominant pitchers throw hard and they throw in, consistently. Too many times guys and coaches try and get cute and out fox the batter. Bumgarner, a big smooth lefty throws harder (of the two) and once he's crankin, he's freezing guys up coming in on the handle. Bard doesn't throw quite as hard, but given his intensity, he's gonna come right at and in on you: manno a manno. And how many weak ground balls went to third Friday night? a ton. He comes right after you, it just doesn't matter. Want a match-up? how about Bard vs. Jason Place? In Jupiter it was just that: late in the game, runners in scoring position, Bard vs Place. Having gotten a hit earlier, Place K's and Bard goes on to notch the win. My opinion is at the high school level, if you can come hard, come hard. At the next level, they'll need more pitches that can keep a much better group of hitters off balance, but for now go with what u got.

But not a lot of guys throw upper 80's and up. Mere mortals need to have a variety of pitches now if they are facing decent competition. My oldest barely hit 80 but had a very successful senior season (unless he happened to be facing Woodie and Myers Park!). He mixed it up and kept guys off balance... but he needed to cause he wasn't going to blow it by many guys in the SW4A.

Whether they throw 78 or 88 though, they gotta mentally want the ball and be confident enough to want to take on whatever comes there way - aggressively. In and by itself, the ability to stay within what the good Lord gives 'em coupled with confident aggression, separates the W's from the L's - no matter how hard they throw.