ASU vs Texas - tipping pitches

[Taxi]

nice bit of info on tipping the pitch. Check out the beginning of the 7th inning (right after the 6th inning commercial break). They also talk a bit more about it after the final out.

 

[redhotcoach]

A "CHANGE UP" or "RISE" here and there is helpful....but everypitch...that is just distracting, and as Kemp said, he was probably wrong 1/2 the time.

 

[Greenmonsters]

If you're wrong just 5-10% of the time, it puts a hint of doubt in the hitter's mind on every single pitch. Thanks, but no thanks - I don't want the help.

 

[ThatDad]

Both the genius coaches I noticed trying this lost. I learned in 10u, let the hitters hit. You cant help them in the middle of a wind-up and Myers almost came across as Busch league to me, given the timing of his yelling. Do they really believe they're helping their hitters, or are they really messing with the pitchers?

 

[JDBerry]

Bush league, IMO. It might not be a conscious effort but I have to believe that has more to do with trying to get into the pitcher's head than help a batter.

 

[sleepwalker]

I watched the game with my dd. It was the first time that she had seen a college coach yell out pitches during a game. She really loved it. It opened up a lot of discussion about the game and pitching in general. During the top of the 7th inning, Texas had runners on 1st and 2nd base with nobody out. The left handed batter took a full healthy cut at the 1st pitch. She then proceeded to step back and take a couple of practice swings and take a sign from the Texas 3rd base coach. She was moving around and then her hand stopped above her head and she looked like she was processing information. I looked at my dd and asked her if she saw the batter getting the bunt sign from the 3rd base coach? The batter then bunted foul. My daughter said rewind, so we watched the batter's body language taking the sign. It actually looked like she had the coach repeat the sign. I thought the batter tipped her hand, but it was also the obvious choice to bunt in that situation.

I thought the call by the Texas coach to bring in the #2 pitcher in the 7th inning was great. Risky? yes, but the different look proved to be effective. My guess is that 98% of college softball coaches would have played the safe play and stuck with their Ace. The Texas coach did something different and it worked. I liked the game announcers interjecting that the reason that Luna didn't come out was because she was trying learn how to hide her pitches. I laughed when they said this and told my dd that even though the #2 came in it is still Luna's game to win or lose. Any signs of trouble and Luna would be back.

Did yelling out the pitches by the ASU coach help the ASU hitters hit the ball? Maybe, maybe not. Did it affect the Texas pitcher? I would guess yes. I think the ASU coach was trying to motivate his girls to compete and win a ball game. His motivation was probably something like I found a weakness in the Texas pitching, if she wants to show us her grip prior to pitching, we will take advantage of it. For a moment, it appeared to me like the ASU batters believed that the Texas pitcher had a weakness.

I thought this was a fun game to watch.

 

[David Carter]

I am in the Bush league camp, if it was really giving the hitters an advantage I probably would not hesitate to do it but I noticed he was wrong alot and like others have said if I was a hitter it would just be plain distracting and have you second guessing even more like you don't already have enough on your plate facing Luna now you have to figure out what your coach is yelling at you then hope he is right, I think he was really just trying to getting in the pitchers head as much as anything maybe he even told his players to ignore his yelling but that would be kind of hard.

I guess if you have not got a hit in the first 4 innings maybe a little panic was setting in and he was just looking for any little advantage to get one run across.

In the end just gotta ask him............how did that work out for ya?

I try and convince my DD just like a game we attended earlier in the year at UTSA, infielders might get a lot of glory but outfielders can win and lose games for you faster than anything an infielder will do...without an outfield throwing error and a catchable ball (it was actually in her glove) Texas only has 1 run and maybe they lose. OF is so under-rated on importance by players even after watching games like this it always about "hey I wanna play SS"

 

[Sweet Lou]

Bit off topic but don't want to start a new thread for the same game. The "HR" that made it 4-2 Texas, how was that not a 4-base E7? Left fielder seemed camped under it and ball went right off the glove on fair side of fence and wasn't jarred loose by contact with teh fence. She just plain missed it. It seemed to be "ordinary effort" in my opinion, but maybe I'm crazy.

 

[David Carter]

Bit off topic but don't want to start a new thread for the same game. The "HR" that made it 4-2 Texas, how was that not a 4-base E7? Left fielder seemed camped under it and ball went right off the glove on fair side of fence and wasn't jarred loose by contact with teh fence. She just plain missed it. It seemed to be "ordinary effort" in my opinion, but maybe I'm crazy.

I wondered the same thing probably a judgement call but it looked in the field of play which would be the most important thing to me. I don't think many scorekeepers would call reaching over or higher than the fence to rob a HR ordinary effort but taking a ball that was in play and basically pushing it over the fence while trying to catch it seems like an error.

Of course scorekeepers are human and everyone that saw it knows what happened I am sure that girls feels absolutely terrible about it, maybe a few sleepless nights dreaming about that one, no need to add insult to injury she now does not need to see the big "E" next to her name on the score line and the hitter gets a HR....everyone is happy except for a few purist sitting at their computers (Lou not a dig at you personally just a general observation, like I said to me probably should have been an E too).

 

[smddad]

It's definitely not bush league and the last time I checked, these girls are not 10U. They are able to process that information. They are out to win the championship. If the pitcher is tipping her pitches, then the coaches and players will and should use it. That's part of the game within the game that I love. I'm seeing more and more coaches use this. Bill Hillhouse wrote a good newsletter on this a couple of months ago.

..Arkansas coach Mike Larabee is a former teammate of mine both club ball and on the National team. He is good at "picking pitchers". I guarantee he has a field day with picking pitchers in the college game because it's only been lately that the girls have tried to hide their pitches. If anyone has watched Oregon play, live on on TV, you will see head coach Mike White (another former teammate of mine) starring into the pitchers gloves and YELLING codes to his hitters. Telling them with ample time what pitch the pitcher is going to throw. It takes some training but, hitters learning how to use this will have a huge advantage. Most girls who are learning how to hit in fastpitch are not taught how to hit from someone who can teach them how to pick a pitcher and how to utilize that. But they are now. More and more male fastpitch players are now Division 1 coaches and the need to hide the ball has never been greater...