fpjunkie

Michelle Kinney from St. Benedict currently plays for Mississippi State.

I am not at all familiar with the Mt. Juliet situation, so I cannot comment specifically about that team or coach. However, in any sport and at any level, there has to be some common sense. My daughter plays in the SEC, and she missed a practice this year to attend the funeral of a close friend. A teammate missed a conference double header to attend the funeral of her grandfather. Neither was disciplined, in fact both attended with the permission of the coach. There is a difference between being a strict disciplinarian and being a control freak. Thankfully, most of the coaches whom we have dealt with through the years have been the former.

The pitcher is required to start with her hands separated, then bring them together, I believe for between 1 second and 10 seconds. I believe that approx. 10 years ago, it was required that the ball be in the bare hand while they were separated, and this was referred to as presenting the ball. The rule for at least the past 8 years has been that the ball can be in either the glove hand or the bare hand, thus the pitcher no longer is required to "present" the ball, although some people still use that terminology.

What is the purpose in this? Just curious. It doesn't sound like a real good idea to me.

I know that Vanderbilt does not have a great deal of unused space on campus, but that alone should not rule out softball. Many schools (including the University of Tennessee) play softball in off-campus facilities. The strong community interest in fastpitch would not only give Vanderbilt a big advantage in recruiting, but I believe that softball would also enjoy much more community support than volleyball or swimming. I don't know if they have tried to make arrangements to play off-campus, but if not, it would certainly make a lot of sense!

How does this poll work? I guess I'm not too smart, but I can't figure it out. I clicked on the box to see the poll results, and I not only got the results, but a message that I had already voted. Is there some way I can find out whom I voted for? If so, is there some way to cancel it if I don't agree with myself?

Does anyone know why there was not a gold bracket? It is bad enough having to beat Georgia teams for the Tennessee at-large berth, but quite a few excellent Tennessee A teams were eliminated by Georgia gold teams. In addition, the 18U's were played at Red Bank which were terrible fields for this level of competition. I heard that there were only 75 teams entered, all ages. No wonder. This tournament has really gone down. If not for the at-large berths, I bet there would have been even less entries. Maybe it is time to look at another way of awarding the Tennessee at-large berths!

One of Mississippi State's top players, a sophomore this past season, was home schooled. I also know of a home schooled player who signed this year with TSU.

fanniemaye - Every team has approximately 15 teen aged girls, all with different levels of development, maturity, confidence, tact, etc. I agree that the statement you quoted is not what I would hope to hear from someone on my team, but if you were in the right place at the right time, I imagine you could hear statements as bad, if not a lot worse, from virtually every team in the state. Someone who mutters a statement like that after a game does not concern me nearly as much as someone who would post a statement like that on a public forum. What are you hoping to accomplish? We have played Hickman County 6 times over the past two years, and they have always conducted themselves in an admirable manner both on and off of the field. When it comes to class, it looks like you should take some lessons from them. Hickman County - Good luck in State!!!

You are right, there are wide variances in the way people keep stats. Unfortunately, these stats are often used to determine post season awards. I have spoken with parents on other teams who tell me that their players get credited with base hits every time they have a sacrifice, walk, fielders choice, etc. No wonder some of the batting averages are so high. Sometimes when I see a line summary in the paper called in by one of our opponents, I wonder if they were watching the same game. Keeping score is complicated when you have a well-trained, unbiased scorekeeper. In nearly all high school games, you have a parent who is usually not particularly well trained and, no matter how hard he/she tries, is certainly not unbiased. I try to follow the guidelines set out by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (www.nfca.org). I reread them at least twice a year and carry a copy with the scorebook. My daughter is a pitcher. When there is a close call and she is pitching, I ask myself how I would score it if she had been hitting. If she is hitting, I ask myself how I would score it if she was pitching. If I am still not sure, I ask several people around me for their opinions. I still admit, however, that I am not totally objective. I don't believe that any parent can be. It would be nice if TSSAA would print out some guidelines and maybe even have an annual seminar. Although you are never going to have totally consistent approaches to scorekeeping from school to school, I believe that you could come a whole lot closer with a little bit of training.

According to article in today's City Paper, Herald gave up 6 hits and struck out 11 for Ezell, while Cunningham gave up 3 hits and struck out 10 for Davidson. Natalie Brock reached first on a fielder's choice and scored from first on a fly ball by Ashley McCool off of the center fielder's glove. I don't think the article said if it was a hit or an error, but I got the impression from reading it that it was an error.

You can give an error to any player, including the pitcher. In this case, it might actually be two errors. You said she badly bobbled the ball and then overthrew first base. Was the throw in time to get the runner out? If so, then it would only be one error. However, if the runner had it beat, then there would be one error on the bobble which allowed her to reach first, then a second error on the throw which allowed her to reach second. The error would not be on the first baseman unless the throw should have been caught with ordinary effort (or unless the pitcher's father was keeping score.)

Congratulations to Centennial for a great win! Centennial now moves on to play Hickman County in the finals. These two teams were the number 3 and 5 seeds going into the tournament. I think that speaks volumes about the level of competition in 11AAA. Even the teams that finished near the bottom showed marked signs of improvement this year, so hopefully this level of competition will continue to improve. Does anyone know when the championship will be played? Best of luck to Centennial and Hickman County as you move into regionals and beyond. I know you will both represent our district well.

Does anyone know the results from last nights games in 11AAA?

sbcoach - I don't see how you can bring Hickman County into this. If you reread the original post, it is clearly intended to fire up Brentwood. How can that benefit Hickman County? I read everything on here regarding 11AAA, and I cannot recall Hickman County ever talking any trash about Brentwood. Hickman County has never shown me anything but class, and they have already assured themselves of a regional berth. What motivation could they possibly have to stir things up between Centennial and Brentwood. (And how many Hickman County fans do you think know or care how many seniors are on Brentwood's team?) If you read the posts following the original, you will see that it did exactly what it was intended to do, fire up Brentwood. After trying to get them mad in the first part of the post, the remainder is basically a pep talk. In fact, if you reread the entire post and imagine the Brentwood coach giving it as a speech after a hard loss, it would be a pretty effective postgame speech. It is just unfortunate that it was given on a public forum. I certainly am not implying that it was posted by a Brentwood coach, they all have way too much class for that. Probably a frustrated fan who thought that the coach didn't come down hard enough on them after the game. Regardless, it shouldn't be allowed to tarnish the image of Brentwood or Centennial's softball program, and it certainly should not reflect in any way on Hickman County.