Travel Ball

The only consistent problem I noticed with umps was calling of outside pitches as strikes. Its fine when catcher sets up outside a little and doesn't move her glove and its a strike. But when they set up outside and still have to reach further to the outside across their body just to catch the ball,there's no way that's even close to strike. Saw that quite a bit. That's not a "judgement" call, it's a bad call.

 

I'm not one to get on umpires either (haha, all coaches say that), but I did see a couple called strikes this weekend in Rock Hill that I've never seen before. This was in the 10U A division, girl threw a changeup that crossed the plate above the batter's head, called a strike. Many other high and low strikes called, basically shoe tops to chin was a strike. I didn't have a good angle on inside/outside, but it seemed equally large. Now I know 10U needs a little bigger zone, but that's too much! I wonder if these guys call rec ball during the week and then can't adjust to the better tournament ball on the weekends. And it should be tightened up for Sunday's games for sure. Disappointing to say the least for a state tournament. There are some good ones, but like one earlier poster said, it's about 50/50, and some can really help determine the outcome of the games.

 

To follow up on the NSA 18's finals in Statesville. The pitchers for the Predators in the championship game were Allison Tysinger, 06 Central Davidson first three innings, Lindsey Boening, 06 Forsyth Country Day second three innings and Ami Hutcherson in the seventh, not sure where she is from. The winning run in the first game against the Cardinals was driven in by Lindsey Boening. This is the report I got from one of the parents.

 

I attended the NSA tournament in Statesville from around noon on Saturday till 10pm. I got to see a number of both 16's and 18's games. Overall the umpiring was adequate at best. The strkike zones seemed to vary a lot and some of the umps did not move very well on the bases. The worst incident I saw was in the 16's game between the Copperheads and the NC Bandits. With two outs and a runner on second the base ump was between second and third when the batter hit a ground ball, the ump moved very little toward first and called the runner out. The runner was so obviously safe that the Bandits stayed on the field thinking the ump would appeal or change the call. The Bandits coach had to call his girls off the field. Luckily the call had no effect on the outcome of the game. Both coaches started laughing about the call after the inning helping to diffuse any negative comments from the stands. That is my point of this post to commend the coaches for their handling of the situation so that the girls could go ahead and play.
I would also like to commend coach Gene Poindexter of the Copperheads and Central Davidson. I spoke to Gene before the game to ask about the makeup of his team and he told me they were mostly jv's and younger varsity players from Central D. and he was hoping to use the summer as an instructional league to prepare some of the players for the varsity. I was able to sit close to the dugout during the game and could hear a lot of Gene's comments to his players. I do not recall hearing a single negative comment. Gene used every at bat to teach the players about situational hitting and fundamental strategies. No matter what the outcome of the at bat there was always a positive comment made to the player, even pointing out how many pitches the hitter had made the pitcher throw after two strikes. The parents in the Central Davidson area should be thankful that they have someone knowledgable and willing to teach the fastpitch game to their DD.
I will also say that Lamar did a great job with the Bandits as well, with very positive and helpful coaching.
I know Gene does not read TBR so some of you Central fans please pass along my praise.

 

16U NIT @ Statesville

Hey, Any body know who won the 16's in Statesville ?

 

16U

Craze won it beating the Lady Blues in the second game of championship. They played very well and were well coached.

 

WFC Mountain Firecracker Open at Forest City 7/2/05

16 U Results :

1. MIXED FORCES

2. CHARLOTTE BLAZE

3. SMACKERS (Ingle)

To view more photo's of this tourni and other trouni.'s . Check out my Albums on eteams.....

http://eteamz.active.com/Smackers14U2005/albums/

 

Congratulations Mixed Forces!!

 

I have to say congrat's to the Mix-Force they did win the battle, a very good ball team. But I was really impressed with the Blaze having to go through what they did. They played FOUR games back to back starting at 10:30 Saturday morning, two pool games, (hour and five mins) and two bracket game with NO BREAK! after losing the forth game by a run or two, they did get about an hour and fifteen min break and started an up hill battle toward the championship game. They played FIVE consecutive games back to back, with little or no time between games just enough time to CHANGE FIELDS and start again. One of the games went to international tie breaker, and their last game the CHAMPIONSHIP GAME ended at about 3:15 SUNDAY MORNING! So if I had to say the CHARLOTTE BLAZE WON the WAR! I am really impressed with the desire and character of this team as well as every-one else that stayed and watched these ladies give all their heart and soul to the game they LOVE

 

3:15 AM Sunday morning!?!

Did I read this correctly? If so, how can this be justified? Years ago I coached adult slow pitch teams in Texas. We played "all nighters" because of the heat . . . but these were adults. Reminds me of a post I read on another forum a few years ago complaining about a tournament format which caused a 14 year old pitcher to throw 40+ innings in one day. Seems the idea of the parents or coaches stepping in to say enough was never considered. My point is that often I see kids literally dragging thru losers brackets of double elimination tournaments. I'm not sure what the point is. I think tournament directors are finally waking up playing more pool games and going to single elimination play. Dynamites is done this way and Hot Times has moved to this format . . . . very smart.