- Jul 29, 2016
- 231
- 43
My daughter goes to a private school. Last year, everything came together, and they ended up losing in the state finals after working all the way back through the losers bracket to the finals. After that, the school's 20-year softball coach retired, and the school put a new hire in charge of the team. She comes from a family where baseball was everything (coach's father was a semi-pro and apparently a long-time coach), which was enough for the school administration to let her be the head softball coach. I knew things might go sideways when she did a "meet the new coach" Zoom call in July and asked the players to state their name, their position, and tell everyone who their favorite baseball player was. Wut? Baseball player?
Our team graduated our two very talented pitchers, and we are trying to get by with a single freshman pitcher who is good, but doesn't have the speed or control to pitch CGs. We have two other pitchers "on paper" but not really. We have one. Softball is a fall sport here, so we're playing now.
Yesterday, the full extent of our troubles was laid bare. One of the assistants was calling pitches instead of letting our daughter (the starting catcher) call the game - not usually a problem, but he kept calling for change ups and inside pitches (over and over again) to their best batters. It went about as well as you could expect. Doubles, triples and homeruns. About halfway through., my daughter convinced the assistant to let her call the pitches, and things settled down. The damage was already done.
We went into the bottom of the 7th down 14-5. Leadoff batter gets on base, and coach tells her to steal 2nd. She does. Then the coach tells her to steal third, and she's thrown out. We managed to plate a run before we got the third out, and then one of our batters gets on base. We've got one out left in the game and (yep, you guessed it) the game ends on a CS to second.
Why? I give the players props for listening to their coach, but why in God's name are you stealing bases in the bottom of the 7th when you need EIGHT runs? The team actually has enough good bats where it actually is a possibility that they could have that kind of two-out rally. Lots of murmurs in the stands in that last inning. I feel especially bad for the seniors. It is especially tough when so many of the players are very very good travel players who intimately understand the game.
Our team graduated our two very talented pitchers, and we are trying to get by with a single freshman pitcher who is good, but doesn't have the speed or control to pitch CGs. We have two other pitchers "on paper" but not really. We have one. Softball is a fall sport here, so we're playing now.
Yesterday, the full extent of our troubles was laid bare. One of the assistants was calling pitches instead of letting our daughter (the starting catcher) call the game - not usually a problem, but he kept calling for change ups and inside pitches (over and over again) to their best batters. It went about as well as you could expect. Doubles, triples and homeruns. About halfway through., my daughter convinced the assistant to let her call the pitches, and things settled down. The damage was already done.
We went into the bottom of the 7th down 14-5. Leadoff batter gets on base, and coach tells her to steal 2nd. She does. Then the coach tells her to steal third, and she's thrown out. We managed to plate a run before we got the third out, and then one of our batters gets on base. We've got one out left in the game and (yep, you guessed it) the game ends on a CS to second.
Why? I give the players props for listening to their coach, but why in God's name are you stealing bases in the bottom of the 7th when you need EIGHT runs? The team actually has enough good bats where it actually is a possibility that they could have that kind of two-out rally. Lots of murmurs in the stands in that last inning. I feel especially bad for the seniors. It is especially tough when so many of the players are very very good travel players who intimately understand the game.
