swingaway

Dene, the starting catcher at Riverdale is amazing. She was an All Tournament player at the Hendersonville tournament, and was an All District player and All District Tournament team player. She batted just under 400 and had 25 RBI's. She had many game winning hits for Riverdale including the game winning hit that bounced off the fence in Riverdale 's 1-0 win off of Beech. For a freshman that isnt bad. Our freshman middle infielders arent bad either.

I have to agree, I told someone the other day the crowd down there is brutal. I liken it to playing in the Alabama stadium in college ball. It will be hard for Soddy to overcome the "Coffee County home field advantage". They might do it but it will be harder than what they think. They better come out hammering the ball as they are going to get no favors.

Well, I will see this weekend as Virginia Tech is playing UT at the regionals. I'll take a radar gun and come back and report. Hows that. My seats are directly behind the catcher.

I dont know, in high school ball you can step back or rock back. I think they were referring to the push off in front of the rubber instead of from the rubber.

They dont call squat in high school! I really think the umpires are scared to death to call anything that is controversial. I am all for just doing away with the rules on pitching if they are not going to enforce them. Heck, why dont we just let the pitchers get a running start from second!

It was an all or nothing thing, she K'd a lot. She is a good hitter, one of the best in the state and a good athlete, just not her worst nightmare. Thanks for the apology, I think Kat Banks is a great kid too.

She wasnt Cat's worse nightmare either. On another subject, lay off Kat's dad, he and others on Beech's team cant tell if your kidding or not and besides he cant be that bad of a guy, he sure raised a great kid!

While we are on names : It is "KAT" Banks , not "CAT "who is an entirely different person, and Angela Tincher no hit the USA team because she has one of the best rise balls in the nation but she throws closer to around 65 not 70. She does not throw as hard as Abbott. As stated before the better movement comes around 65 and that is what she depends on.

Thomas is around 62 -64 as is Banks. 63 is not going to "blow" batters away. Lauren Baker is so successful because of her location and movement. The key to ALL successful pitchers is composure on the mound, movement and location. Cat Osterman only throws 64, Angelea Tincher of Virginia Tech 64-65. Stacy Nelson of Florida about 64-65. ( Florida just won the SEC) Tincher and Nelson are the top college pitchers out there today. They have excellent movement and control. Abbott throws 68 but she is no more effective than Cat Osterman at 64. Beech is smart to start Lauren and close with Kat as they contrast each other so much as pitchers.

I dont know, one "big girl play" may get you noticed but it wont transfer into a scholarship unless you really perform over and over and over. You dont need to promote your daughter , she needs to promote herself which is what I think you mean. Coaches dont really care tremendously much what you do on the high school field but they do look at it. Top college coaches look for top notch performances over and over against the best teams, hitters and pitchers which occur in travel ball. 18U Gold nationals, Colorado, New Jersey, 16U ASA nationals ( only if you are a rising junior, sophomore or freshman) , or even for some part the Rising star , are all great places to places to be seen.

Let me clarify: What do you think Mt Juliet fans would have said if Jeff one day before his team was going to play you this year called your coach and cancelled with absolutely "no reason or explanation given" ? What do you think would happen when she told you guys? Do you think words like "why?" or "unexcusable" just might have come up? Understand now? Confusion happened last year, the problem was clarified and fixed, history did not repeat itself and that is why there was no public outcry this year when Riverdale had to cancel. It was made was very clear as to why by the coach to the coach. If you would like to discuss this further please talk to your coach or Jeff about it. On the phone, where this conversation belongs.

High school girls have always been able to step back, as far as I can remember anyway. I think it is best not to depend on it, or use it at all as you cant do it in ASA ball. It is just a habit you have to break every June.

Thank you hits123, finaly some intelligence on this topic. All I know about the rise is the way my daughter throws it and I think she has an excellent one. Mowatt is known for 1) stepping outside the 24" rubber illegally and 2) leaping and 3) crowhopping when she throws her rise. I was just showing examples of what all the all the college coaches and pitching gurus were all complaining about concerning illegal pitching in college ball. These pictures were taken off a college softball forum as examples of illegal pitching. The video was too.

She can drag away but what she cannot do is take a second push from where she stops dragging which is what she does when she throws her rise.

I have kept from posting on this because but I have to say, since you keep bring up back up, and back up, and back up........I will post. Last year Mt Juliets coach , when she called did not state she had a district game to make up and the only day she could do it was on the Riverdale game day, she just cancelled with no explanation. There was no district game she 'had' to make up on that day. She cancelled the game just because she did not feel it was in her teams best interest to play the game at Riverdale at that time. ( I am saying what she said according to her players) That in itself is fine enough reason to cancel, and it is always fine to cancel a game but I think people did not understand why she waited until the last second to do it. Riverdale needed the game. They could not get a replacement in one day. In contrast , Riverdale got rained out on Sunday, it was wet on Monday, and they had to play two games with only two days avaliable to play them before the district tournament started. Jeff's back was against the wall. He didnt have any days in which to make up the games. MT Juliet did have days , she did the right thing and played the game on the designated day, everybody was happy. I dont know why you want to continue to bring this up. Jeff did the right thing, Mt Juliets coach did the right thing. No problems. End of story.