I think if I wanted to walk them I'd have given them a pass right from the get-go.
At 3 balls, and we already established that we don't want a walk, I would have the next two pitches be high percentage chance of a strike without throwing a meatball down the middle. Average middle school pitcher, I would want something that is high percentage, but something more likely to cause a dinker or pop-up if it's hit. I'm new to all this and we don't call pitches at this point, so maybe that all is a bad idea, but I like to accept reality and do my best to minimize the damage.
We did an automatic walk on a kid that had homered on us her first time up. We were down like 6 runs. There was 1 on base, and two out if I recall correctly. In that case, we were less concerned about the type of hit she would get, and more concerned about our pitcher's confidence level if she gave up another bomb or big damage hit. She had struck out the first 4 batters initially, but that homerun was hit the next time around by their #1. We figured it was worth a shot to let two players be on base and see if she could strike out #2 a second time. She had already lost velocity (which for her is a direct result of confidence level) and was on the brink of the wheels falling off. At six runs down, we felt it was our best shot at getting out of the inning and keeping her off the edge of the cliff.
It didn't work. The #2 hitter got a hit, and she proceeded to melt down anyway and do something like 2 walks/1 hit a few times until they were up 12-1. We brought in my daughter, who generally walks 1-2 per game and throws mid 60% strikes, and she proceeded to walk four straight, throwing exactly one strike the whole time.
It was in that game that I realized the power of chanting and taunting an opponent when it's done consistently. Those girls were relentless. It usually doesn't bother my daughter. She's new to pitching this year, but positivity is her super power. She'll even dance to the chanting if she likes the cadence of it--even when losing badly.
It never stopped for a single second when we were on the field though, which is not something we'd seen all year. Our starter made it two innings, and my kid was defeated before she even threw her walk-on warmups.
At 3 balls, and we already established that we don't want a walk, I would have the next two pitches be high percentage chance of a strike without throwing a meatball down the middle. Average middle school pitcher, I would want something that is high percentage, but something more likely to cause a dinker or pop-up if it's hit. I'm new to all this and we don't call pitches at this point, so maybe that all is a bad idea, but I like to accept reality and do my best to minimize the damage.
We did an automatic walk on a kid that had homered on us her first time up. We were down like 6 runs. There was 1 on base, and two out if I recall correctly. In that case, we were less concerned about the type of hit she would get, and more concerned about our pitcher's confidence level if she gave up another bomb or big damage hit. She had struck out the first 4 batters initially, but that homerun was hit the next time around by their #1. We figured it was worth a shot to let two players be on base and see if she could strike out #2 a second time. She had already lost velocity (which for her is a direct result of confidence level) and was on the brink of the wheels falling off. At six runs down, we felt it was our best shot at getting out of the inning and keeping her off the edge of the cliff.
It didn't work. The #2 hitter got a hit, and she proceeded to melt down anyway and do something like 2 walks/1 hit a few times until they were up 12-1. We brought in my daughter, who generally walks 1-2 per game and throws mid 60% strikes, and she proceeded to walk four straight, throwing exactly one strike the whole time.
It was in that game that I realized the power of chanting and taunting an opponent when it's done consistently. Those girls were relentless. It usually doesn't bother my daughter. She's new to pitching this year, but positivity is her super power. She'll even dance to the chanting if she likes the cadence of it--even when losing badly.
It never stopped for a single second when we were on the field though, which is not something we'd seen all year. Our starter made it two innings, and my kid was defeated before she even threw her walk-on warmups.
