I am late to this thread, so I apologize if this has already been mentioned, but I wanted to add my $0.02. Two weeks ago my DD was pitching at 18U PGF and we had a couple of umpires with strike zones the size of pie pans. It was frustrating to say the least. While it would be nice the be able to throw a 70 MPH fastball by the batters, that is not an option for my DD or 98.2% of pitchers, and accuracy can only get to you so far against batters who are headed to play P5 D1 next season when the umpire is squeezing the zone. Therefore, a pitcher had better be able to CHANGE velocity. And I am not just talking about a good change up, which is HUGE, I am talking about being able to throw pitches at different speeds to throw off the batters timing and prevent them from squaring up the barrel on the ball.
I'm late to the party too, and haven't read all the comments, but you're right.
A pure fireballer will win a lot of games against mid tier batters, a control spot pitcher who can knock a fly out of the air will also win a lot against mid tier batters. But a pitcher who has the that final 3rd ingredient of off-speeding, she is the gem you want.
I use to always love when a coach would say "mine can throw 65 mph", and yep she would............the WHOLE weekend. And against the better batters she would get rocked.
A great pitcher should always keep the batter thinking not only where the pitch is, but at what speed it's going there.