- Jul 2, 2013
- 383
- 43
Our varsity tends to carry 2-3 pitchers depending on the year. If they carry 3, the third pitcher starts somewhere else on defense and is only called upon to pitch when really needed.
The problem I've seen is miss-management of pitching by high school coaches more so than overuse. A couple of years ago we had a senior pitcher who was number 2 as a junior (girl in front of her graduated). We also had a stud freshman coming in. The freshman deserved to be the number 1 starter but the senior thought she should be since she had been there and held the backup spot. The coach felt like the freshman needed experience so he started her in every game including those we knew we would win handily. What happened? The senior quit a few games into the season because she had only pitched an inning or two and it ended up killing us by the time we got to districts. If it had been handled better up front the senior could have been given quite a few innings early without sacrificing wins and we would have had two pitchers all year.
The problem I've seen is miss-management of pitching by high school coaches more so than overuse. A couple of years ago we had a senior pitcher who was number 2 as a junior (girl in front of her graduated). We also had a stud freshman coming in. The freshman deserved to be the number 1 starter but the senior thought she should be since she had been there and held the backup spot. The coach felt like the freshman needed experience so he started her in every game including those we knew we would win handily. What happened? The senior quit a few games into the season because she had only pitched an inning or two and it ended up killing us by the time we got to districts. If it had been handled better up front the senior could have been given quite a few innings early without sacrificing wins and we would have had two pitchers all year.