Thread: Louisville's closer and pitch speed

Originally Posted by Ken Krause

I am watching the Louisville-Kentucky game right now, and watching the pitch speeds being posted by Chelsea Leonard, the closer for Louisville. I have not seen her throw a pitch yet in the 60s. Her top speed seems to be 58, and she's throwing a lot of pitches with speed that starts with a 4. On TV they said she had the most saves in the country.

Interesting, isn't it? We always hear that you can't pitch D1 unless you're in the mid-60s. I guess it depends on where you go and what else you can do.

Pointed out this tidbit to my DD, who despairs of reaching that "magic" 60mph mark....but has a really good changeup and the other stuff spins correctly. Yes, the Louisville pitcher is the exception to the norm....but she's very successful. Maybe it will open a few doors to others (but I doubt it).

I’ve seen a few teams we play in summer ball that will follow the speed pitcher with a good location, movement pitcher and not as much speed. This combination seems to work very well, keeping the ball low and on the coroners is the key to these pitchers IMO.

I saw this young lady when she got injured my heart goes out to her, she has to be a tough young woman. She apparently change her style to try and stay in the game she apparently loved. You have to respect an athlete who goes to these extremes.

Originally Posted by PEPPERS

I’ve seen a few teams we play in summer ball that will follow the speed pitcher with a good location, movement pitcher and not as much speed. This combination seems to work very well, keeping the ball low and on the coroners is the key to these pitchers IMO.

Those must be KILLER pitches if they're bringing coroners onto the field. :-D

Originally Posted by PEPPERS

I’ve seen a few teams we play in summer ball that will follow the speed pitcher with a good location, movement pitcher and not as much speed. This combination seems to work very well, keeping the ball low and on the coroners is the key to these pitchers IMO.

I saw this young lady when she got injured my heart goes out to her, she has to be a tough young woman. She apparently change her style to try and stay in the game she apparently loved. You have to respect an athlete who goes to these extremes.

Yes, watched her all weekend as well and felt bad when she went down. She injured it earlier in the inning and continued to pitch to a couple more batters, but couldn't go on. Her motion didn't seem particularly kind to bad knees. She had that Monica Abbot type lower leg drive and it looked like she drug the pivot foot hard. I think it was the pivot foot knee that she was grabbing.