Defense against the slap

[starsnuffer]

Can the pithcer throw a rise ball?? It should get the slapper to pop the ball up if i am correct or just throw a high strike!!

Outpitching the slapper is always the best first step, but if you're facing a slapper with a .400 BA, then you need to have a good back up plan.

I agree that keeping the ball high you have a better chance of the slapper popping one up, especially if they're a "chopper" rather then a "bat roller". Pitching outside to force them to slap to the left side is a good strategy too, as it's very very hard for a slapper to take an outside pitch and send it anywhere near the 1B side.

Slapping strategy depends a lot on field conditions. With a hard field, all the slapper has to do is pound it hard into the dirt about 5 feet in front of the plate, and it really doesn't matter where the ball goes. If she's quick, she's at first before the ball comes back down to be fielded. Obviously that doesn't work on soft fields.

So, I guess the point is, pitch high and outside, so long as your pitcher can do this for strikes (slappers will take these looking for a better pitch with less then 2 strikes), avoid pitching them drop balls, slappers love these, shift your outfield in and to the left, play 3B shallow to get the ball before it bounces high, and make sure your SS is a vacuum.

-W

 

[druer]

I take it Americans don't have the same meaning for slapper that England/Australia has? ;-)

One of my mentors, Bobby Simpson with Higher Ground Softball, discovered that when coaching the British National Team. Has the best laugh recanting his story trying to explain that one of the americans called upon to play for the team was a slapper and how they all started laughing and wouldn't stop.

 

[Sparky Guy]

Can the pithcer throw a rise ball?? It should get the slapper to pop the ball up if i am correct or just throw a high strike!!

Not in college... After the NCAA lowered the top of the strike zone the good hitters learned to lay off of the riseball. The drop curve into them was harder for them to hit.

 

[rowdy]

One hitter usually can't beat you. The key to beating any good team is to limit the success of the role players and take your lumps with their best. Any pitch you throw that doesn't change planes is trouble to any good hitter. An outside drop offers 3rd base to the pitchers mound for your batter and those defenders should be your best athletes and best arms. If you have a pitcher who can't hit her spots or are in the lower age groups then you just take your medicine until the pitchers can throw hard enough to have a real drop and a real rise.

 

[absdad]

Can the pithcer throw a rise ball?? It should get the slapper to pop the ball up if i am correct or just throw a high strike!!

I've watched a couple of games of Purdue softball on tv, and they have one very talented slapper. Have seen her several time pop up the high pitch up the middle just over the pitcher, in no mans land.

 

[SBFAMILY]

absdad, I watch a bunch of big 10 softball. The big 10 has many good slappers now. We call the above hit the duck hit and that and the power slap are just more weapons the slappers have to use against the special defenses they see. We just tell our slappers to read the defense and rarely give them signs. DD last night used the down slap, because SS was too deep. Next time she used the Whatley slap, since they moved SS in , but 3B was moved back. NO special defense will work against a good slapper.

 

[starsnuffer]

Great points, SBfamily. One thing we do but that I rarely see done at the college level (I think there's way too much sign giving and not enough strategy at the college level) is utilizing other offensive weapons from that left handed box besides slapping. With 2B in and 1B back, it's a great opportunity for a fast runner to drag bunt down the 1B line, especially with a runner on 3. Being able to push bunt as well as duck slap the ball wherever the defense is weak on the read are great skills that I just don't see being used as much as I used to. Wonder why that is.

-W

 

[SBFAMILY]

starsnuffer, I was thinking about that as I made my post. Very little drag bunting in college. Not sure why. We drag bunt when they have 2B in and 1B back. Sometimes I just think it is better to let the kid decide what she can do best. Coaches try to out coach each other and not let the kids figure out what is best. They only sign we give my dd is the hit and run. She has a green light on 3-0 counts and has burned many , and it is a neat bunt she will lay down with a runner on 3B. Defense just gets caught napping.