DD is bummed out.

[quincy]

It is too bad you are not closer so you could see some more games in person.

It is hard to know if the coach is making even an OK decision without watching some games. Hopefully it is just a temporary situation for your DD.

 

[CoreSoftball20]

Did she express this concern to you, her coach or her teamates? I know so many pitchers parents that blame every misfortune of their DD's on the other players I can't help but think there's more to the story.

I am thinking there has to be more as well

 

[JJsqueeze]

Did she express this concern to you, her coach or her teamates? I know so many pitchers parents that blame every misfortune of their DD's on the other players I can't help but think there's more to the story.

I agree, I can see a coach changing the pitching rotation for chemistry reasons, but for a coach to not bat the player with the highest batting average on the team (assuming we are not talking and inflated BA due to a small number of ABs) there has to be something else going on.

The situation you described sounds way too one sided, is it possible that some of those "errors" were hard hit grounders that the SS dove for but nicked with her glove? Could those pop ups be driven fly balls that the OF had to run a long distance for and just missed? Maybe she placed a little too much blame on her teammates and the coach is sending her a message by not playing her? I have to believe there is another side to this.

 

[PEPPERS]

I agree, I can see a coach changing the pitching rotation for chemistry reasons, but for a coach to not bat the player with the highest batting average on the team (assuming we are not talking and inflated BA due to a small number of ABs) there has to be something else going on.

The situation you described sounds way too one sided, is it possible that some of those "errors" were hard hit grounders that the SS dove for but nicked with her glove? Could those pop ups be driven fly balls that the OF had to run a long distance for and just missed? Maybe she placed a little too much blame on her teammates and the coach is sending her a message by not playing her? I have to believe there is another side to this.

I can only speak of the one game I saw her pitch, one hard hit ball actually IMO a good pitch and a good piece of hitting by the batter, a line drive to opposite field for a single. DD keeps telling me it has been going like this for her in the other games recently.

If something else going on as some have suggested I don't know about it and DD has not told me. Seems like a strange turn of events.

There is only about 8 more games before the season ends.

 

[AndyS]

I can only speak of the one game I saw her pitch, one hard hit ball actually IMO a good pitch and a good piece of hitting by the batter, a line drive to opposite field for a single. DD keeps telling me it has been going like this for her in the other games recently.

If something else going on as some have suggested I don't know about it and DD has not told me. Seems like a strange turn of events.

There is only about 8 more games before the season ends.

I am really grasping at straws so just take this for what it's worth. I am assuming she is a freshman? Are the other pitchers upperclassmen? If the answer is yes to both questions is it possible she took time from a popular upperclassman and her teammates consciously or unconsciously are not playing as hard for her? Especially if she got good press earlier in the season. Knowing how to operate in that environment can be very tricky.

Again I could be way off just brainstorming...

 

[sleepwalker]

My dd's 1st year of pitching in college and her experience has been an up and down ride. If you hadn't given details about when your dd last played and rained out games, I would have guessed that your dd was on my dd's team. My dd gets to see a considerable amount of pitching time, even though she has the highest ERA on the team. It hasn't been like that the entire season.

Two things happened during the season that allowed my dd to start seeing significant pitching time. The first thing that happened was that my dd quit shaking off pitches that were being called by the coach and relayed through the catcher, after a few very short outings. The second thing that happened was that the two backup catchers both got injured, which left only the #1 catcher. When my dd pitches now, she pitches a steady diet of dropballs. I have seen her throw 7 to 10 dropballs in a row to some batters. Boggles my mind sometimes, but when I ask her about her pitches and pitch selection, she just tells me that she pitches what gets called. I am fine with it, because she is getting significant pitching time.

At the beginning of the season, she was told that she wouldn't get to pitch in several games because the backup catchers couldn't catch her dropball. It frustrated my dd that a coach would actually tell her that, but in the end, she realizes that she is lucky enough to play for a coach that is open and honest with her. My dd seems to get more strikes called now that she is pitching to the #1 catcher. For some reason, it seems like umpires will call more strikes when they are not getting beat up by passed balls.

I am, in a way, thankful that my dd has had to struggle in softball at the college level to get pitching time. She is learning so much about softball, conflict resolution and competition, that I, as a parent couldn't teach her. I've always told my dd that she is going to have to earn her playing time and perform when called upon, because her dear ol' dad just didn't have the greatest athletic genes to pass on.

As a side note - my dd's struggles as a pitcher at the college level has created several heated arguments between my dd's mom and myself.

 

[Ken Krause]

I've seen it happen before. Sometimes, for whatever reason, a team just doesn't seem to be able to play defense behind a particular pitcher. My younger daughter had it happen for a while when she was playing travel ball. Fortunately it was a temporary situation.

Whatever is causing it, I'm sure the coach is doing what he/she thinks is best to win games. That may mean going with a lesser pitcher to reduce the number of errors. Sucks, but the coach is being judged on wins, not on putting the best team on the field. You'd think they'd be connected but they're not always.

 

[sluggers]

In the end, "wins" are the only thing that matter. Stats are interesting and sometimes helpful, but they rarely tell the whole story.

DD won in college because she knew how to pitch--not just "throw pitches" but understood how the game worked, how batters and coaches thought, and how umpires called pitches. She knew what each of her fielders could do. And, she made sure that the players liked her and respected her.

 

[Strike2]

Early in the season she received a lot press on her success and had a couple articles written on her performance. Then at some point she began express concern because she was getting scored on because of errors, after watching one game, she is 6 hours away and work does not allow many trips to watch her play, outfield dropped 3 routine fly balls, infield threw routine ground balls away and the catcher dropped a routine pop up in fair territory costing a run.

A meeting with the coach the first of the week she was demoted to 3RD in the rotation, coach thought that her spin was so good that the ball comes of the bat funny and this was making the team make the errors. This is not what I saw, but I’m not a college coach either. So his solution is to give her less time in the circle, more of role as a relief pitcher.

Blaming the pitcher because fielders are dropping hit balls and making throwing errors? Incredible.

 

[cuzmail]

Blaming the pitcher because fielders are dropping hit balls and making throwing errors? Incredible.

Of course!
If the pitcher struck everyone out, then the fielders inability to perform basic routine plays would never be exposed.