What Has Led to the 4 Inning College Pitcher?

[WWolff]

[h=1]I thought this was a great article and wanted to share.

What Has Led to the 4 Inning College Pitcher?[/h][COLOR=#B2B2B2 !important]April 12, 2016 | Posted by Cindy Bristow Comments 0 [/COLOR]

[h=4]2016-04-12_4-Innings[/h]​

If your pitchers want to pitch in college, then make sure you know how to help them. We are currently in the age of the 4 inning college pitcher so make sure you know what you can do to help your pitchers get better, now!
Pitching in college is tougher than ever and pitchers are seldom making it past the 4th inning. Check out why this is and start working to fix it.
It wasn?t that long ago that one dominant pitcher was all you needed to make it through your season, but times have changed. The college game has become a high-scoring affair where it?s rare for the pitcher to get out of the 4th inning, let alone finish the game.
This is a huge change for our game, not only in the minds of our pitchers but in the way we as coaches use our pitchers. Baseball has always been a high scoring game that?s utilized a starter, long term and short term reliever ? and now college softball is getting to that same situation. Seldom does the starter finish the game, and even more often the reliever is herself relieved.
While I know not every pitcher wants to pitch in college or even has the skill to do so, for those that do it?s important to help them better understand what life as a college pitcher will be like. So let?s take a look at what?s led to college softball having the 4 Inning Pitcher:

1. Quality of Hitters ? college hitters are much better than those you?ll face in either high school or travel ball, which means your good pitches will be hit hard and your bad pitches will be hit even harder. Start preparing now by facing the best hitters you can, by reviewing every batter and figuring out how to have a better approach next at-bat. And those un-focused, sloppy practice sessions aren?t helping either. If you?re practicing to play at a level where every-single-pitch counts, then you need to start practicing that exact same way ? starting NOW!
2. Time Limit Games ? I know that most tournaments have time limits on games in order to get in as many games as possible. But just know, that time limits are hurting the ability for pitchers to finish a game. Time limits mean that pitchers don?t throw more than 4 innings, and they also learn to only give an hour?s worth of effort. Neither one of these are helpful for your pitchers when they get to college, so encourage your pitchers to play high school softball (where they play 7 inning games) and schedule as many full-length games as you possibly can.
3. Exposure Games Where Consequences Don?t Exist ? College games have consequences which means there?s a winner and a loser. While this might sound stupidly obvious it?s important to mention because most teams spend their time in showcases, simply ?showing? their skills instead of using their skills to win. Winning is the goal of college softball games and the best way to learn to win, is to win. And the only way to have that chance is to compete in games that do more than simply show your talent.
4. Conditioning ? To last 7 innings giving your very best, and giving more than your opponents, you MUST be in top physical shape! That includes legs, arms, core, lungs and mind. Get yourself in top shape! In order to beat the best, you have to be at your best!
5. Command of the Strike Zone and Count Management ? In order to dominate college hitters 3 times through the lineup a pitcher must be able to have a plan, and pitch to hit the plan. This requires the control to hit any part of the strike zone on any count. Simply throwing different types of pitches without any purpose or specifice destination won?t cut it in college. To be good enough to finish 7 innings a college pitcher must be able to use her pitches to hit specific parts or edges of the strike zone. As a coach, your favorite pitch may not be the best way for your pitcher to attack this hitter. Be sure you put your pitcher in position to attack the Strike Zone in the best way she can, instead of in your favorite way.
6. Lack of a Dominant Pitcher ? This one gets tricky, but having 6 or 7 pitchers on your team doesn?t help any of them. Nobody in this scenario gets enough innings to make them better and none of them get better at pitching longer into a game. I know it?s not about making all of your pitchers 7 inning college pitchers, but it doesn?t help any of your pitchers to have so many they don?t ever get the chance to really pitch. Instead of having a couple of pitchers on your staff who will NEVER get into a game, let them play for another team where they?ll actually get to pitch!
7. Pitiful Off-Speed Pitch ? The best pitch ANY college pitcher can have is a changeup (or off-speed). If your pitcher can only throw a changeup in the bullpen or only when she?s ahead in the count, then it doesn?t count as a workable changeup. Encourage, make or even force your pitchers to practice their changeups, and then help your pitchers by calling it during games. If good hitters know it?s always coming in fast and only have to figure out up/down, in/out then pretty soon they will. But if those hitters have to figure out up/down, in/out AND fast/slow ? it becomes nothing but a guessing game, and great hitters don?t guess.

 

[24GahannaLadyLions7]

Great Article!! I am new to the travel scene with less than 3 years experience, but I have tried to soak up all the softball I could have with three girls 12U, 10U, 8U just starting out in the world of travel. One of the biggest complaints I have had is the time limits on games. There are times where the bottom of the lineup may only get an at bat or 2 and we are on a pretty successful team. How are you to learn from your previous at bats? I have tried to teach my daughters to see as many pitches as you can and really pay attention your teammates at bats in these short tournaments. To get 1 at bat in a game just stinks. Not only that, there is a HUGE difference from an hour and 15 minute finish to the bigger tournaments of an hour an 40 minutes for our pitchers. I would love to see more tournaments in the area going to 90 minute to 100 minute games.

I have seen a lot of the seasoned veterans on the forum get upset about us newbies at the 10U level about the passion of winning or trying to be one of the best teams in the area. (I will admit that I have done my share of promoting) But winning is important and being put in pressure situations to perform is important. I want my daughter to feel the pain of failure and the triumph of victory. *story* When I hear that because a college coach is coming to watch a player that the team coach in a tournament may play his lineup or defensive alignment differently gets to me a bit. I want the coach to WIN every game, pressure on every game to win. Maybe I'm different. Like I said, I am new and may be way off base with that thought process, but I can see that happening.

Lastly, I understand that baseball and softball are two different sports. But I see game after game on tv that the girls are throwing their fastball one speed or their curveball/screwball one speed. Changing of speeds could be utilized more with not only with fastball/changeup, but fastball to fastball or a fast curve or slow curve, but I don't know that much about softball pitching, may be they are doing that.

Still learning, but I can't wait for many years with my daughters out on the dirt!!



** My two oldest competed at the 10U level last year against each other and probably the only time in their life as they are an 04 and 06. My 06 happened to play up when she was 8. Long story short, on the 3rd pitch of the game, my 04 slapped the ball to my 06 at short. My 06 did all she could do at 8 yrs old and made a perfect throw to 1st just missing getting my 04 out by a step. I so badly wanted my 04 to get thrown out by my 06, not to razz her about it (even though I would of), but because failure under pressure is so powerful, I know my 04 would of been in the basement getting swings for the next 3 hours after the game. https://vine.co/v/OvLDAUIPp31 -- 6 second vine play of it

"Courage allows the successful woman to fail and learn powerful lessons, from that failure. So that in the end, she didn't fail at all." - Maya Angelou

 

[coachjwb]

Good article ... I agree with most of it. A couple of quick points ... the first is I think that at least some of the reason for the change has to do with the evolution in strategy of college coaches. Similar to MLB, look at that has changed over the years with relievers usually taking over the last 3-4 innings. While some of that in MLB has to do with lefty/righty and perhaps conditioning as well, I think hitting has improved greatly in both sports over the years and coaches have decided they are more effective in giving teams different looks from fresh pitchers in the late innings. The other point I wanted to make is that you will see a much higher % of complete games at the D2-D3 levels ... where at least part of that has to do with less pitchers to turn to, or a more significant drop-off in pitching talent. Regardless of the reason, I think the reasons and recommendations made above are good ones that coaches, parents and pitchers should be thinking about in preparing for college play at all levels.

 

[Pacerdad57]

conditioning is always the big thing for me, whether a pitcher or not. this is where HS ball can help, getting many more innings than in tournies. i like the idea of being able though to go 3 or 4 innings then bring in a different pitcher to stay ahead of the offense, always (hopefully anyway) takes another inning or two for the batters to start catching up again, so if you have 3 pitchers that can rotate in and out without the team losing any quality in pitching you are so far ahead of the opponent with what you can show them. the entire team tho needs the conditioning aspect covered to make it through these summer games at 95 degrees and 3 games or so in a day.
i will definitely agree with coachjwb on the length of games pitched in D2 & D3, unless someone is getting hammered, you see a lot more innings out of those girls.
thanks for that article Warren, lots of good food for thought in there.

 

[FastBat]

2- Time Limit Games- This is a bigger deal than coaches/parents think. Saying your dd's team played 7- 80 minute games at 10/12u is great, but many times that's only 3-4 innings. They are overestimating how many games they have played in the season.

4- Conditioning- This is such a big deal. If your pitcher has a hard time pitching in the winter in the cold, wait until it's 90 degrees and sunny. Especially the first few of the season. I have seen girls pitching with beat red faces and arms, not sunburned, but due to being winded and struggling physically. It's something to think about.

7- The Change Up- The pitcher shouldn't slow their body down while throwing a change up. I think change ups get a bad name or are misunderstood. Because as the player gets older, they will just slow their body movement, to throw a change up. It becomes less effective if they slow their body down because everyone in the park knows it's a change up, including the batter. They need to be more deceptive and learn to "use the release" to slow it down.

 

[FastBat]

...My two oldest competed at the 10U level last year against each other and probably the only time in their life as they are an 04 and 06...

Talk about courage! We can't even have family game night at our house. I can't imagine what living in the after math of sisters' travel ball teams playing each other was like...

 

[24GahannaLadyLions7]

Talk about courage! We can't even have family game night at our house. I can't imagine what living in the after math of sisters' travel ball teams playing each other was like...

Funny!! Same way with game night here, but the most competitive and worst one when she loses is my wife!