 |
| Wesley Wolverine freshman #4 P/ UT Abbey Mayse (Cecilton, MD). |
2 absolutes of
college pitching
Condensed from an article at Softball Excellence posted by Cindy Bristow titled “2 Absolutes Your College Pitcher Must Have”.
“There are 2 glaring qualities that all top pitchers have…
“1. TOUGHNESS/HUNGER – This doesn’t mean “she really wants it”. It means she’s suffered through the extra conditioning and grind to get herself into shape to physically last the season and to mentally endure the tough times. Because the season is long and hard, and there will be tough times! ...
“Hunger is internal and toughness is mental. Grueling physical conditioning is the only way to really develop the mental and internal drive to keep going, to do just one more, and to give all you have and then give more.
 |
| Wesley Wolverine freshman #17 P/ 1B Juli Neel (Haddon Township, NJ). |
“2. ACCURACY… We’ve lost sight of the importance of Accuracy by falling in love with the quantity of different pitches…
“We’ve gotten mesmerized with fancy and have completely lost sight of the fact that the purpose of a pitch, any pitch, is to weaken a hitter. Ultimately you want to get the hitter out, but some hitters are so good that having them hit a single versus a home run counts as weakening them.
“Hitting an exact spot within either the strike zone or within the batter’s swing zone is the difference between that batter hitting into the shift of your defense, and hitting into the gap.
 |
| Wesley Wolverine freshman #25 P/ 1B Dori Loukopoulos (Chambersburg, PA). |
“Movement pitches are supposed to simply add a layer of difficulty for the batter by making it harder for the batter to predict the ending spot. But instead, pitchers have started thinking movement, regardless of where the pitch ends up is what beats hitters. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
“Accuracy means you can hit the intended spot. Period. Not kind-of hit it, not close-enough to hitting it. You either hit it or you’ve missed it. Hit it, and you’ve got the edge over most hitters you’ll face. Miss your spot, even by a little, and you’re probably not finishing the inning let alone the game.”
