Good game to end tough season

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Jun 18, 2013
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This has been a terrible season for my DD on our 10U rec team. Last night her hard work paid off. We were facing the best pitcher in our league by far. A little back story on this pitcher. I have been coaching girls in this league since my DD started T-ball at 6 years old. Every year this pitcher and my DD are the only two kids that I have always had on my team. I love this pitcher to death. She is an absolute sweetheart and a great kid. Her family is awesome and they have been loving to my DD at every turn. So, there is no animosity to the rivalry at all. However, my DD is a very good hitter and their DD is no question the best pitcher in our league at this point and they have both worked very hard to get there. This year, the league asked the pitcher's dad to coach and he agreed primarily so he could draft a team that would allow his DD to be the only pitcher. No problem at all except it meant that I lost one of my favorite kids.

All year long, teams have been pitching around my DD. Through 10 games she had 2 official at bats. One double and one strike out to this pitcher because her coach(me) stupidly got frustrated on a 3-0 count and told her to swing at the next 3 pitches no matter where they were and they were nowhere that she could hit. At least she listens when her coach is an idiot. Last night, she didn't get pitched around. Before the game I talked to the other coach and he warned me that he was going to start a different pitcher because they are playing in a tournament this weekend and he needed to give her a chance to practice before tonight but he was going to bring his daughter in after this first inning. My DD was already in the lineup as my #2 hitter to try to force her to get 2 turns at bat. She saw one ball to hit from the other pitcher and pulled it hard foul before walking. So I decided to use a strategy someone recommended on here to me. I didn't steal home at all. I told the other coach what I was doing and held my runners at third so it would get my kids more chances at bat and flip my line up. Every one was happy and it got me back around to the top of the order for my DD to see his DD.

We have done some shared practices since my DD is a catcher. My DD caught one of her private lessons for her and his DD is throwing a legit 45 mph at 11 years old. The rest of the pitchers we see in our 10U rec might hit 35 mph. We throw from a 35 foot pitchers mound. My DD came up with 1 out and a runner on 3rd. She watched a first pitch strike at about mid-thigh. She stepped out of the box and looked back at me with a frustrated look and took a few practice cuts where she dropped her hands way down and uppercut. I reminded her that was not how she swings and told her to keep her hands where they belong and to just be her. She stepped in and did her bat spin that she learned from her older brother and I knew her confidence was back. She roped the next fastball, and it was a legit letter high fastball, to 3rd so hard that it was all the F5 could do was knock it down. Run scored and there F3 was already walking off the base before she got there with no attempt at a throw. I think I was more pumped up than she was. I've watched almost every game in our league this year and there have been very few kids make contact with any of this pitchers fastballs and nobody has pulled any of them as hard as she did last night.

After the game we were talking about it and she said that the pitcher was trying to head fake her before the pitch. I asked her what she meant and she said that she was shaking her head to the catcher like she was trying to get her to line up for an inside pitch but then she threw it over the middle of the plate. So, she was paying close enough attention to see that the pitcher was setting up for one pitch but picked up the fastest fastball she has ever seen live well enough to not only be able to tell me where it was but to also get around on it and drive it hard to third. All of this while also playing the best game of her short career as a catcher. I couldn't be more proud of her hard work right now.
 

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