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What effective pitcher won't take advantage of an ump giving corners off the plate?
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The ones whos catcher doesnt know the ump zone? 
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Not sour at all. I have a great deal of respect for Keystone. Both teams are a long way away from playing each other in the semi-finals. Good luck tonight.
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Hopefully it is a good game and is won by the team making big plays or coming up big in the clutch. At this point it is a one game season - what was done in prior games doesn't matter. Anyone can come up big or have a bad game so there are no guaranteed winners or losers. Good Luck to Woodridge - I hope you are the Bulldogs who come out on top
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I would love to see a Keystone / Poland rematch, but I am rooting for Woodridge. Go Woodridge.....
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I'm with you. Good luck Woodridge
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Go Poland!!!! Want them to bring another title back to the valley !!!! Great group on that team along with wonderful parents !!!
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A smart Pitcher/Catcher combo will find and utilize the outer limits of any umpires strike zone.
Find it early and use it.
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No doubt about this fact, at any level of baseball and softball. As long as it is called the same for both pitchers, which wasn't necessarily the case in last year's championship game. Hypothetical question. Should the state assign a home plate umpire from outside both teams geographical area? Last year's hp ump was from Youngstown and had probably seen one of the pitchers many times. Is that fair to both sides, or even to himself? There are four umpires, why not make sure the home ump is from southern Ohio, if both teams are from northern Ohio? Just hypothetical, not questioning his integrity. But could having seen one pitcher before make a difference?
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That's probably a fair point to make. My question is how did Keystone get ranked higher both nationally and in Ohio than Poland? Who did Keystone play this year that is nationally ranked in the top 20 or so?
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All team sports at every level have issues with rankings. My guess would be that they returned everyone except center field from last year and that the the whole infield and 1 outfielder were starters on the Tidalwaves who tied for 17th at ASA nats. Except for shortstop who played 18u gold last summer. Basically a very very high level travel team playing highschool ball. But who really cares unless they win! And you get the opportunity to make yourself look pretty good if you beat them. All good for Ohio softball!
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And that is an excellent question. Even as a Keystone fan, I think Poland is #1 until they lose that spot. Their losses were to a nationally ranked team with their second pitcher (in Florida)...and to Elyria (which I stated in another post, was 3 bunts and a hit by Elyria, and some untimely mistakes by Poland). As far as the national rankings go, I believe the coach has to sell his team. If Poland's coach doesn't send in a lot of details, it won't help. I know Keystone's coach "sells the program" as much as possible. Nothing wrong with that. Keeps the younger kids excited and helps build tradition...Both Keystone and Poland played some excellent teams this season, and Keystone got rained out of it's game with Hoover, can't blame them for that one. (FYI: Elyria's #1, that beat Poland, is a Keystone resident who open enrolled to Elyria...because of issues after freshman year, don't know details but you how those things go!)
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Looks like it all worked out Ok... Some people Must have guessed pretty well.
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Keystone still needs one more or it will be still be tainted. I have to say at this point, they brought their A game and look good.
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at the point of this post, they had not won the final. if they had lost the title game, they higher ranking and victory over poland would not have meant as much then it would have with the title in hand.
