To pitch or not to pitch

[Indiana]

Everyone here nailed it as far as who was pitching which game and thus who the ace may be. I'll address what may be your other concern, which could be your DD's progression in the sport?

It is very hard to predict a 10 year old pitcher's progression over time - it is not a linear development. As long as your DD is getting equal circle time, her progression is not being hindered. I can think of several 18U pitchers who were good little 10U pitchers, but there are a lot of 18U pitchers who didn't start pitching until age 12 or even 14. Some of these girls have passed the lifelong pitchers for whatever reason - desire, work ethic, natural talent, size and strength, etc. On the flip side, lots of very good 10U pitchers move on to other positions and are very successful. I saw a little snippet of an interview with an SEC player - I forget who - and she was talking about who her favorite softball player was growing up. She mentioned Cat Osterman because "we were all pitchers when we were 10". Most of the 10U pitchers who make it to 18U are good - very few are jaw droppingly fantastic. Look at the Kentucky Derby - there you had 19 teenagers (3 year old racehorses) who are very good. One, California Chrome, was jaw droppingly fantastic. The rest were very good. So very good or jaw dropping, you're still in the show.

 

[RetiredCoach]

As a father who has seen my daughter at the 10U level overworked, I would be glad for her not to start two games. Being the father of two pitchers, I am glad to have another good pitcher on their teams to minimize the temptation for the coach to keep pitching them and pitching them to win the tournament.

The best use of my daughter I've seen during a doubleheader is if she is starting the second game, they might bring her in as the closer for the first game. If she starts the first game, they might bring her in the second game in relief.

 

[CJ D]

The kicker for us was when the PC who never caught the pitchers told me he didn't understand my daughters pitches because they moved the wrong way. I asked what do you mean. He said "I call a screw and it goes the wrong direction" and giving a motion of going away from a right handed batter. I said turn around and look at her as she was warming up. He looked at me and said "She's not left handed". He was serious. This was after him being the PC for 8 weeks. Go figure.

I'm not understanding. Was her screwball moving away from a right handed batter? Seems he would be able to see which way it was moving regardless where he was standing.


And to the OP, in 12s we have a rule. 2 games in a day. No more. As to who I would pitch, 1 or 2, I would look at the bracket and typically try to determine who we are playing when and pitch accordingly. Some pitch best 1st to be sure to get there. Just differences in coaching strategies. No way is better or worse, IMO.

 

[Jabber13]

I'm not understanding. Was her screwball moving away from a right handed batter? Seems he would be able to see which way it was moving regardless where he was standing.

No as a right handed pitcher her screwball was moving into the hands of a RH batter.

The problem was her "pitching coach" who had been with the team for 8 weeks at that point thought she was "a left handed pitcher" so he didn't understand why her screwball moved exactly as it was supposed to move into the RH batter.

He paid so little attention to the pitchers other than his daughter that he didn't know which one was RH and which one was LH so he didn't understand their pitch movement when he was calling pitches in the games. It was time to move on at that point. This was 2nd year 12U.

 

[chinamigarden]

I've seen lots of teams save the #1 for the final, only to never get there.

 

[Rocketech1]

One thing to remember is that most of these 10u tournaments are timed games. For example, no new inning after 1 hour 20 mins so its not likely any one pitcher pitches more than 5 innings. No reason a typical 10u playing at a relatively competitive level can't pitch two games in a day. I would watch to make sure her mechanics are not breaking down.

With that said, a great strategy at this level is to pitch your #1 the first couple of innings and once through the batting order bring in a new pitcher to finish the game. We did this last year and it worked very well for our team. You don't have to keep the same pitcher in the whole game and wear her out.

 

[marriard]

Single elimination - You win the game in front of you and figure out the next game when you get there. Don't go home with your #1 not having pitched. Trying to 'get' by with your #2 or #3 better be against a weak team - in the semi-final you don't want to bring in your #1 down 5 when she was available to start.

If I have burned my #1 in the semi (any more than say 4 innings) then yes my #2 is going to start the final - or maybe I start the #1 but the #2 is going to come in the game in the third no matter what. But I am not pitching a girl in 10U or 12U girl 2 full games in a row over a stupid $10 trophy. Because all the reasons not to (long term injury, lack of a #2 pitcher, no #3 option, no way to play double elim games, short term injury, etc) over rule the only reason to pitch (short term winning 1 game and trophy).

BTW - we usually start our #2 in this scenario because the temptation to keep pitching the #1 is too great if she is pitching well.

One thing I will say - TB coaches don't take advantage of the ability in softball to take pitchers out and then reenter/move the back to pitcher later in the game.

 

[Huskers44]

Thanks all for your replies. I was just trying to see how the whole pitching rotation works, that was all. Either way I was just trying to answer a question for my daughter and I did not want to ask the coaches and rub them the wrong way. There were 4 teams left- single elimination and the #1 seed was much better than our team who was the number 2 seed so I was not sure how it all works. The 3 seed team we played was beatable and we won 13-1 when my daughter pitched. so it ended after three innings - she was curious why she did not pitch in the finals. I understood and told her what I thought, but I just wanted to understand better how this all works. I know people lift their noses up at 10 U - but our kids work very hard so they deserve the best as well. Thanks

 

[medicpelle]

If she wants to know why she did not pitch I would of instructed my daughter to ask the coach. I understand you hesitation on asking the coach and not wanting to come across a certain way. You can't start early enough teaching them to talk with the coaching staff and to stop relying on mommy and daddy.

 

[bpeck]

Well my DD plays for a 10u travel team and our head coach is all about winning.. He gets so upset with them when they loose. His dd is the #1 on the team and he will have her pitch all day if he can. Just so we have the best chance to win.. We are all paid for the year, but now I regret this a little bit..