Sea Change?

Softball strategy may be in the first stages of change regards pitching.  Consider what happened over the weekend to Augustana College, the third CCIW team playing in the NCAA tournament.  The baseball approach trumped the old-school softball philosophy.

Despite having six pitchers on the roster, Augustana went with their number-one starter throughout the conference and NCAA regional, so much so that she had five complete games in nine days.  Make that six in ten, only the last one was a loss against the University of St. Thomas.  Fatigue may have been a factor, given that Augustana took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning.  Six more outs, and they advance to the NCAA superregionals. 

Only St. Thomas scored two in the sixth and one in the seventh to force extra innings; they won with one out in the eighth.  But since Augustana was in the winner’s bracket, St. Thomas had to beat them a second time.  Now, if you’re Augustana, who starts that all-important game?  The coach went with her number one, again, and she couldn’t get past the third inning after giving up five runs.  St. Thomas built up a 10-2 lead and held on, 10-7.

Unlike Augustana, St. Thomas used three different pitchers in the game (and four in the two games); their number one relieved in both games.  Not to go all Tony LaRussa here, but what’s the benefit of going with one pitcher when you’ve got five others?  In any case, St. Thomas borrows a page from the baseball manual and moves on.

If I were a softball coach (an amusing if not quite frightening thought), I’d be collecting as much information as I could on pitcher fatigue and injuries.  The notion that the windmill delivery of softball pitchers avoids injury may be more myth than fact, and, even if it isn’t, there’s still fatigue to consider.  The softball pitching stride is just as hard on the legs as it is in baseball; you need extra pitching to keep your number one fresh at the end of the season.  Augustana gambled that you don’t, and lost.