LL world series

[Rita C]

Originally Posted by RKBUmp

The one pitcher for Virginia was illegal on virtually every pitch, constantly bringing hands together multiple times. There were a few instances where I actually saw her pitching the ball into her glove while standing on the pitching plate. But, the girl that pitched for AZ in the championship game was also illegal on virtually every pitch. She was stepping on and had her hands coming together while stepping on, sometimes they were even together before she was on.

I have no idea what the one IP he called on the AZ girl was for. Looked fine to me except she lost her balance a little and kind of shuffled her feet on the pitching plate.

One of my frustrations with softball around here is that I am THE ONLY ONE who calls illegal pitches in the lower levels of ball (Little League). I'm trying to get others trained to do so. But it means conquering the attitude that "we just want it over the plate. who cares how it gets there".

These girls then move on to freshman or JV ball where the new guys work who also don't know what an illegal pitch is yet or how to call it. No one calls it till they get to varsity and, quite honestly, a precious few do so. So most of the coaches don't bother correcting form at all, choosing to let the pitchers pitch anyway they want until they get to an umpire who will call it.

I'm getting better at calling the illegal pitches but it's no fun doing it because the pitchers have their illegal motion ingrained and keep repeating the illegal action. Last year, varsity pitcher kept stepping back after her hands came together. Coach didn't understand what I was calling.

In baseball, at least the coaches have some idea what a balk is and will correct their pitchers, or put in a new one till they can work the problem out. Softball, they only have the one, maybe two, pitchers.

Vent over.

Rita