What is going on at Northwestern?

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sluggers

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May 26, 2008
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Dallas, Texas
Lauren Delaney is a superb athlete. Last weekend, Delaney walked 16 (yes, 16) batters in a game at Iowa. The next game, she walked 6 in 5 innings. It is pretty clear that Delaney is exhausted from the pitching.

And she should be. So far this season, Delaney has pitched 204 innings of a total of 221 innings played by NW. She has pitched in both ends of every doubleheader played by Northwestern.

At Florida, the number 1 pitcher has thrown 170 innings. At Stanford, 193 innings.

Over at NW baseball, the most any one pitcher has thrown is 65 innings. At the University of Arizona, the most any pitcher has thrown is 47 innings.

There are studies confirming that softball pitching does damage the arms of softball pitching. So, how long is the "head in the sand" approach going to continue for softball pitchers?
 
Dec 28, 2008
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I don't disagree that some pitchers are utilized to much and that it can hurt their arms. But I don't think its fair to say that softball pitchers shouldn't pitch more than boys, or that because they do coaches heads are in the sands.

2 years ago at the end of a long season as the only pitcher for Arizona Taryne Mowatt managed to pitch 8 games in 7 days to win the National Championship. She followed that up with another strong season last year, and is still pitching as a pro today. So clearly softball pitchers can endure the punishment if they want to be the one with the ball in their hand every single game and they have PREPARED themselves to do so.

Just a guess but I'm thinking more than exhaustion was a factor in a pitcher throwing 16 walks in a single game. I'm guessing there was some battle of the wills going between coach/pitcher, pitcher/catcher, pitcher&catcher against the umpire or a head stuck in the sand over a recent break up or something and the coach wanted to force her to get over it. The Drohan's are way to good to just allow a pitcher who's arm is "dead" to keep pitching, destroying her season and theirs if that were the only factor.
 

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