Another young pitcher hurt by a ball

riseball said:

And that was in REC. Even with the mask how scary would it have been for her to throw against 18U Gold TB players?

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Extremely scary!!!!

When my dd first started playing softball, she played 7-8 pitching machine rec ball. She played 3rd and fielded the pitching position. The very first "pitch" of her very first game, she got line drived (near the jaw area---if I remember correctly). She has been wearing a mask ever since and I would not have it any other way.

I will say this when my DD was younger 8u I was against her wearing a face mask and our coach was making it mandatory. but I must say after the last 4 years im grateful that she wears one now although shes never taken a direct hit to the face there has been many many times the ball has come close. and I couldn't imagine them taking a shot directly to the face when after landing they are only 35 ft or so away from a 50mph pitch coming full bore off of a composite bat (just saying)

mask yes. DD has been hit in mask by cleat while making tag at third base, bad hop on line drive at SS, hasn't been hit in mask while pitching.

A personal friend of mine was hit in the face with a line drive last year while on the rubber. She had a face mask on but the ball hit her so hard it mangled the facemask and put her out of ball for 7 months with orbital socket problems and concussion symptoms.My personal belief is facemask and get rid of the Pocket rocket Bats they are swinging. My friend did go back on the rubber and the girl that hit the ball was one of her friends off of her own travel team while playing a middle school game...

riseball said:

Not saying this is the case in the example cited. But I have often wondered why it is acceptable in HS softball to have 14 year old rec players players on the same field as 18 year old women who are signed to college programs?

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I understand your point, and don't necessarily disagree with you. However, I think this may vary by region. Locally most of our high school softball programs have 20 players or less. Some only have 12 or 13 players total. Not only do they not have enough to field a JV team, but sometimes a portion of the roster is girls that have never played organized softball. We have some pretty strong teams too. Ours has 12 girls with travel ball experience and several others with significant rec ball experience. And some other teams have players that will probably play D2 or D3 ball (very few if any D1). But there are other schools that would probably lose to a strong 14u travel team in a scrimmage. Just the reality of the region.

holy smokes she was wearing a face mask and it still got her orbital socket wow. my daughter wears a Rip It I cant see her getting that thing smashed by a hit but guess that would be something to test out.

I was at the game and it was very scary site. It was a rip-it and it was destroyed ... This little girl had internal bleeding issues,orbital socket problems concussion symptoms and for a while was having seizures. Was not sure if she would ever be cleared to play again.

Holy smokes - she had a mask on. This has to be the most serious injury that I have heard of.

Please keep us updated on her recovery. I hope, at her age, it will go smoothly.

My DD said something last night about wanting the GDD to do gymnastics. I told her it is ok, with me. I kept my kids out of baseball/softball until they were 10, because injuries were rampant, even 25 years ago.

Merrill Danner said:

At a camp at a local Oklahoma college. The pitching coach told my daughter, 12, that if you field the ball correctly you don't need that mask. He then says to the parents that many coaches won't even look at a pitcher who wears a mask, because either she is afraid or all she can do it throw right down the middle and has to do a lot of ducking.

I told my daughter to keep the mask on and throw the ball.

This was an older guy, 65+.

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Hmmmph. Here's a suggestion for that coach. Go stand 37 feet from home and have a few girls with good technique and $300 bats hit a ball off a tee. See how many he can field. And that's without the power of the pitch behind it. Real easy to make those statements when you're not the one standing there vulnerable.