Louisville vs Aptos

This game was not exactly exciting for me to watch because there was so little action. It seemed more like a FP softball game. That didn't mean it wasn't a good game, just that it wasn'tt the kind of game that gets me excited.

This was another demonstration about how there is more than one way to pitch and still be successful. The kid from Louisville certainly was a moose, but he did have nice mechanics and great body control for a kid that big. The boy from Aptos was more of what we all describe as a pitcher, not depending on the FB for everything.

There was one thing I noticed that seems to go along with my way of thinking. As soon as the kid from Louisville backed off, he sure got much more accurate. When he started he was sitting at 72-76 and literally all over the place. Later on he was 68-71 and everything was much better. In the 4th he got up there again and that's when he walked the 2 batters, and as soon as he backed off, everything settled down again.

It was really hard for me to tell if he threw a breaking pitch unless he really lobbed the ball up there. I suspect that was because his style of pitching doesn't lend itself well to the hook because he stayed so low and behind the ball.

I thought the kid from Aptos had a nice breaking ball, but he threw it way too much and I'd say his strike accuracy with it was no better than 20%. It got to the point where the batters just sat on it. All 3 HR's and the double came off of back to back off speed pitches.

I have to give both kids credit though. They were both very good pitchers for 12 years old.

Of course there were the standard comments made during the game that I would like to comment on. one was from the Louisville coach in the 1st inning. He told the kid he was having trouble because he was getting behind the batters. When he said that, the kid had thrown to 5 batters and gotten 1st pitch strikes on 3 of them.

But was more telling to me was that he had been ahead of every batter but one. either 0-1 or 1-2 during the at bat. That's one of the little things I see as a scorekeeper that a coach will seldom, if ever see. the perception was that he was behind the batters, but the reality was, he was in great pitching position on every one!

The only reason I don't like a coach saying things like that is that IMO, the pitcher might start aiming the ball, and that's bad.

A comment by one of the announcers also got my attention. In the 2nd inning with the Aptos pitcher throwing, one of those guys commented about how the boys control was paying dividends. Although he had been ahead of 6 out of the 7 batters he'd faced, he went to 3-2 counts on 5 of them! Maybe I'm wrong, but that doesn't exactly smack of great control in my mind!

Did anyone hear the story about the kids dad who changed arm slots to sidearm and saved his career?

Rich, if you saw the slide at 3rd and you were the ump, would you have pumped him out? It sure looked head first to me.

Finally, one comment the announcers made actually made me laugh. It was when they were talking about the kid from Louisville and raving about how he used the rubber to push off and get all that power. When they took a close up of the hole in front of the rubber, I just had to laugh.

Either those guys live in a vacuum, never saw a field after a kid's baseball game or were just plain stupid! I have never seen a pitcher at any age who doesn't dig that hole! just normal wear during a game will produce the hole.

The Aptos pitcher:

20 batters
Earned runs - 4
Strikes - 40
Hit strikes - 9
Balls - 33
Strike % - 60% 58/82
1st pitch strike % - 80% 16/20
Pitches hitting location - 62% 51/82
Curves - 57% 47/82

The Louisville pitcher:

25 batters
Earned runs - 1
Strikes - 57
Hit strikes - 10
Balls - 41
Strike % - 62% 74/108
1st pitch strike % - 64% 16/25
Pitches hitting location - 55% 59/108
Curves - 22% 24/108