My DD is 11 playing on a 12U TB team. We had our second tournament this weekend and did fairly well. DD is a pitcher (#2 on the team) and pitched a lot this weekend. This is her first year on a real TB team. She played in the fall for a few tournaments but the competition was not that great. She is also pitching in REC but there's no comparison to the level of hitting in travel. On Saturday the teams we played against were okay... not the best hitters and she struck out several girls. She used her C/U and F/B along with a screw that works when it's thrown correctly.
She pitched two games on Saturday and only had one ball hit really hard off her. On Sunday she was finding the barrel of bats all day long
She would get girls buried in counts and go after them hard... and they would answer with line drive shot... Add to it our defense that made 4 errors (can't blame them as these balls were hit on ropes) and you have a game that we lost by only 1 run but felt a lot more lopsided than that.
Good news is that she only walked 1 batter in each of the 3 games she pitched (her control last year was poor). And went 8 for 11 from the plate with 2 (inside the park) HR's and 4 extra base hits.
My learnings:
* Competition on Saturday and Sunday looks very different. Pitchers need to have a strategy for each day (she didn't and it cost her).
* DD needs to move the ball around the plate more. The balls that were hard hit were finding corners but with little to no movement.
* DD also needs to learn more about the batters... I don't and won't speak to her during the game, but after the game I asked her if she remembered what each batter did the time before at the plate. She didn't remember what they did.
* Her coaches are doing a nice job from what I see in calling pitches and she is hitting her spots, just with not enough movement.
* She is a hard thrower and due to this her pitches get hit hard... outfielders need to beware, we had three balls go through OF's legs and a few over their heads
* DD throws IR and a coach from one of the teams we played shared with me that he saw that and they her motion looked great
* Softball is a BIG time commitment. All day Saturday and All day Sunday... my life is a mess...lawn is a mess, cars are loaded with trash from weekend meals on the road and this is just the beginning.
* The last thing I learned is that my DD has fallen in love with this game. She struck out twice this weekend and shared that she couldn't wait to get back to the plate again during those games. After our loss she said "I can't wait to play again to make this losing feeling go away". She's hooked
She pitched two games on Saturday and only had one ball hit really hard off her. On Sunday she was finding the barrel of bats all day long
She would get girls buried in counts and go after them hard... and they would answer with line drive shot... Add to it our defense that made 4 errors (can't blame them as these balls were hit on ropes) and you have a game that we lost by only 1 run but felt a lot more lopsided than that.
Good news is that she only walked 1 batter in each of the 3 games she pitched (her control last year was poor). And went 8 for 11 from the plate with 2 (inside the park) HR's and 4 extra base hits.
My learnings:
* Competition on Saturday and Sunday looks very different. Pitchers need to have a strategy for each day (she didn't and it cost her).
* DD needs to move the ball around the plate more. The balls that were hard hit were finding corners but with little to no movement.
* DD also needs to learn more about the batters... I don't and won't speak to her during the game, but after the game I asked her if she remembered what each batter did the time before at the plate. She didn't remember what they did.
* Her coaches are doing a nice job from what I see in calling pitches and she is hitting her spots, just with not enough movement.
* She is a hard thrower and due to this her pitches get hit hard... outfielders need to beware, we had three balls go through OF's legs and a few over their heads
* DD throws IR and a coach from one of the teams we played shared with me that he saw that and they her motion looked great
* Softball is a BIG time commitment. All day Saturday and All day Sunday... my life is a mess...lawn is a mess, cars are loaded with trash from weekend meals on the road and this is just the beginning.
* The last thing I learned is that my DD has fallen in love with this game. She struck out twice this weekend and shared that she couldn't wait to get back to the plate again during those games. After our loss she said "I can't wait to play again to make this losing feeling go away". She's hooked
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