10u pitch count?

[uncdrew]

Sadly so few coaches adhere to these pitch count guidelines when they have a good pitcher. I see all the time. As a pitchers mom, I monitor pitch count. I’ve only had to interfere 2x when dd pitch count got too high and she got stuck with no relief throwing upwards of 40-50 pitches in one inning after throwing 60-70 in the game already to a very tough team. She can usually last 85 pitches over 5 inningS.

This weekend she was supposed to be relieved after the 3rd inning, but the girl who was supposed to pitch didn’t want to do it for some reason so dd had no relief until the last batter. Drove her pitch count from 70 to 110 in 1 inning. After holding the score 2-1 and 3 very successful but tough innings, (the day before the team beat us 8-4.) she walked 4 players in that inning alone.. No time out and no relief. The catchers also get fatigued and make errors when the pitcher overdoes it so 2 more run scored on D3K and steal of home. This was the CS game on bracket day. My dh was very upset. I sent coach an email with the same pamphlet above to both coaches as a reminder about pitch counts. We were so close to winning...final score 4-3.

Walking 4 players after 3 solid innings is not being “off”. It’s fatigue being ignored by the coach or not planning for another pitcher if the relief pitcher doesn’t feel like it.

We are having a call tomorrow. I don’t want it to happen again. Not worth it to overdo it at age 11 so her arm is blown by HS.

My dd is 11 and last season of 10U.

Our pitchers average 21 pitches per inning. What's going on with your team that you get up to 50 in an inning? That's a lot.

Just curious.

We throw about 100 pitches in the yard, 4-5 times per week. On a tournament day, my DD goes 100 - 150. No issues. Can you talk to your pitching coach about building up her strength? I'm not advocating doing anything unhealthy, but coaches do expect a bit more out of pitchers than 80 per day. And I don't think that's unfair.

I wouldn't want your DD not added to a team because her reputation is she can't pitch much.

 

[Greatdaytobeawildcat]

Our pitchers average 21 pitcher per inning.

Just as another data point, checked ours for this summer to date: 2121/102.2 = 20.75 pitches / inn. Spot on.

 

[grcsftbll]

I checked our 3 pitchers out of curiosity. 18.5, 17.5, and 15.5 pitches per inning average, for all of fall and most of spring. I quit keeping iScore a few tourneys ago but it's close to the whole year.

 

[uncdrew]

Now I had to go back and look.

Our P1 is at 18, P4 at 25. Average is 21. Makes sense that your 12U squad would be better.

When the defense can make outs, those pitch counts go down. We had one inning where the girl pitched 5 pitches. That was awesome.

 

[grcsftbll]

Now I had to go back and look.

Our P1 is at 18, P4 at 25. Average is 21. Makes sense that your 12U squad would be better.

When the defense can make outs, those pitch counts go down. We had one inning where the girl pitched 5 pitches. That was awesome.

I'm sure that's true. It's not as easy for me to get the 10U numbers together but I can remember the frustration of our pitchers having to generate 6 outs just to get 3. Even a strike out wasn't a sure thing thanks to drop 3rd. The only good thing about that was the the runners forgot to go until the peanut gallery all started yelling at them, so usually by then the catcher could get the ball to 1B. But I've also seen a drop third turn into a "home run" due to a cascade of errors. Fun times.

 

[djcarter1966]

With timed games maybe 4 to 5 innings that's 80-100 pitches per game. So a game in the morning and one in the afternoon would not be terrible for a tournament and I would think a pretty good benchmark for most youth coaches (not back to back games or back to back days of this though), I don't think I ever went over this and if a given game is out of hand might rotate a pitcher in, so maybe they actually pitch in three games but one of those might only be one or two innings with another game being only two to three innings, you should not be going to a tournament without planning on using probably three pitchers, since you never know what the schedule will look like.

 

[uncdrew]

I do ask the parents, however. And if they are insistent on keeping the girl off the mound the next game, I'll honor that.

 

[BHorns]

At a tournament last weekend. The 10u team that won had their P1 throw close to 300 pitches in 5 games over 2 days. They had a P2 and P3 that were pretty good, they threw 1 game a piece.

 

[uncdrew]

My DD just did 230 in one day about two weeks ago. She was truly in a zone, getting better every inning. Finished the last game stronger than she started. May not ever dominate the way she did that day.

 

[MattM]

I would rather see DD roll into the next game if it immediately follows and her pitch count is ok rather than cool down and warm up again. Unfortunately tournaments are not always structured this way.