Faced a true 14U 60+ MPH pitcher yesterday

[SoCalDad]

DD's basketball team did not play yesterday so she was available for a Sunday friendly. Her TB team was hosting a 16U friendly and one of the teams attending has one of the mythical 14U 60+MPH pitchers. The 14U team was playing up as practice to their move to 16U next year. I watched her warm up and was not convinced about her speed until the game started. Her dad (plus his ego) radars her pitches and proudly brags the speed to anyone sitting around him (oh, 62 she is brining the heat today).

DD's coach gave the team a great speech prior to the game.

Coach: Is she standing in the circle?
Team: Yes, coach
Coach: Does she have a glove?
Team: Yes, Coach
Coach: Is she throwing a 12 inch yellow softball
Team: Yes, Coach
Coach: Then she looks like any other pitcher to me and I know you can hit so go out there and hit her like any other pitcher.
Team: Yes, Coach

Long story short we generated 4 runs against her and ended up "winning" 4-3. Her speed was fantastic but her other pitches were ineffective. Once our batters got down her timing the Speed can kill but without those other pitches working it can also kill a pitcher.

 

[cshilt]

Nice. I'm going to have to "borrow" that speech.

 

[BoardMember]

14yo at 62 eh?......Bet that speech won't work when she's 16, throwing 65 or 6 and bustin the movements and changes as well.........

But hey........You got to her when she's 14......Good job for that anyway.........

 

[tomzpc]

DD's basketball team did not play yesterday so she was available for a Sunday friendly. Her TB team was hosting a 16U friendly and one of the teams attending has one of the mythical 14U 60+MPH pitchers. The 14U team was playing up as practice to their move to 16U next year. I watched her warm up and was not convinced about her speed until the game started. Her dad (plus his ego) radars her pitches and proudly brags the speed to anyone sitting around him (oh, 62 she is brining the heat today).

DD's coach gave the team a great speech prior to the game.

Coach: Is she standing in the circle?
Team: Yes, coach
Coach: Does she have a glove?
Team: Yes, Coach
Coach: Is she throwing a 12 inch yellow softball
Team: Yes, Coach
Coach: Then she looks like any other pitcher to me and I know you can hit so go out there and hit her like any other pitcher.
Team: Yes, Coach

Long story short we generated 4 runs against her and ended up "winning" 4-3. Her speed was fantastic but her other pitches were ineffective. Once our batters got down her timing the Speed can kill but without those other pitches working it can also kill a pitcher.

Sounds like Hackman's speech from Hoosiers, adopted for the sftball context. =)

How many hits, walks strikeouts did she have out of curiousity,?

 

[SoCalDad]

Sounds like Hackman's speech from Hoosiers, adopted for the sftball context. =)

How many hits, walks strikeouts did she have out of curiousity,?

No walks, 10 K's, 6 hits. 3 of the 4 runs were earned. The 4th was on a passed ball. Excellent control of her fastball and rise (about the best I have ever seen from any 14/16U). Drop was non-existent, seemed more like a junk pitch in the dirt. She had very poor control of her change-up, seemed to be slowing her arm and that made her release point go all over. I was told she threw a curve but with the speed I couldn't see any movement on the pitch. This pitcher is very good and I hope she can get control of the drop and change-up since with that speed having those two pitches would improve her further.

 

[SoCalDad]

14yo at 62 eh?......Bet that speech won't work when she's 16, throwing 65 or 6 and bustin the movements and changes as well.........

But hey........You got to her when she's 14......Good job for that anyway.........

For the record the 62 was on her walk-through warm up pitch. During the game she was consistently at 59 - 60. A couple of pitches were a bit faster but only by 1 or 2 mph.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Here's my take on speed pitchers.

True Gold team this fall. ( players from 4 different states ) Pretty dang good team. I watched them pound every pitcher they played in this tournament. This one team pitched their weakest pitcher, she had 3 speeds of slow. 45 FB, 40 off speed, 35 change up. That Gold team never hit a hard ball the whole game. They had seen so much good fast pitching they couldn't adjust and wait on the slow stuff. It was pretty funny to watch because the players and the coaches were getting so frustrated. The Gold team did win 5-2, but they had to switch to small ball to get it.

 

[tomzpc]

No walks, 10 K's, 6 hits. 3 of the 4 runs were earned. The 4th was on a passed ball. Excellent control of her fastball and rise (about the best I have ever seen from any 14/16U). Drop was non-existent, seemed more like a junk pitch in the dirt. She had very poor control of her change-up, seemed to be slowing her arm and that made her release point go all over. I was told she threw a curve but with the speed I couldn't see any movement on the pitch. This pitcher is very good and I hope she can get control of the drop and change-up since with that speed having those two pitches would improve her further.

60 MPH at 14, 10K's and 0 walks? Me thinks that this girl has the potential to be great in a couple of years, assuming she puts the time in to master those secondary pitches.

 

[rowdy]

We had a team do that to us at nationals to the same result. We did finally hit her in the sixth and seventh inning but very difficult to adjust that much for our hitters. I would suggest more coaches trying this against the top teams. My problem is I don't have a slower pitcher to experiment with.