How the Hokies Do It
May 26th, 2008 by Will Stewart
After this weekend’s super-regional win over Michigan, I received an interesting email from a buddy of mine, whose daughter has been playing softball for about three years. He shed some light on how the Hokies can put together wins against teams like Tennessee and Michigan, which appear to have more talent, more powerful bats, etc. It was a pretty educational email, so I thought I would share it with you.
Will,
I might be able to help you out a little with a quick fastpitch tutorial. My daughter’s been playing at a competitive level for three years now, and this year she stepped up to a club team that is playing against some of the top 10U teams in the country (unfortunately, we’re losing to those teams, but we’re getting more competitive each week).
On paper, you look at the stats and see the low batting averages and power numbers and you figure that Tech is really overmatched. However, much like Frank Beamer did early in his career, Scot Thomas has looked at his recruiting disadvantages and decided to build the team around Angela. While he isn’t getting the huge hitters, there is one more way to win in fastpitch: speed! My daughter’s coach has a favorite expression — “Softball is a running game” — that he uses to keep the girls hustling throughout practice and games.
That is where Tech excels. Thomas couldn’t necessarily get the best hitters, but he could players who can run – and they almost all can fly. Check out the stolen base numbers for Jenna Rhodes — almost one per game. With only 60 feet of distance between the bases, if you can run, you have a huge weapon.
For instance, my daughter has her mother’s D-I speed (her mother ran track for mid-size state university, non-BCS school). She has really struggled adjusting to the much faster pitching this year, but she is the team’s third leading hitter. How? By bunting. She’s only been thrown out once this year on a bunt, and that was by half a step. Erin Ota, Caroline Stolle, Anna Zitt, Misty Hall, and Jessica Everhart can all run very well. That puts HUGE pressure on a defense if they can just put the ball in play somewhere.
The announcers kept mentioning that the errors by Michigan were very uncharacteristic. But the speed of the Hokies means that you have got to make the play perfectly EVERY SINGLE TIME. Now tack on the pressure of knowing that if you give up just one run, you could lose the game, and suddenly every routine ground ball becomes an adventure. It doesn’t always work — and Angela does have eight losses this year to prove it — but it gives you an 80% chance of winning every time the team takes the field.
One stat that they showed during the game is truly remarkable, and that is Erin Ota’s 8 strikeouts in 230 at-bats. If she has anyone on base in front of her, there’s a good chance that the girl could score every time she comes to the plate. With Tincher on the mound, you may only need to push one run across to win.
From a pitching perspective, the advantage that Tincher had over the Michigan pitchers was that her ball movement is up and down, whereas the Michigan pitchers relied on left-right ball movement. With the vertical movement, you can throw every pitch over the plate: rise, drop, fastball, or changeup. The ball that rises or drops out of the strike zone can be very difficult to lay off. It’s much easier for a pitcher to lose the strike zone, if they are relying on the ball to curve back over the plate, or start over the plate and move off.
Plus as a hitter, a sideways spin is much easier to pick up and anticipate the ball’s movement, making it easier to lay off the pitch and draw a walk. Once the Wolverine pitchers got rattled, they lost confidence in their curves and screwballs and had to rely on subpar rises and drops — which the Hokie hitters teed off on.
I like the Hokies’ matchup with Texas A&M this Thursday in the WCWS. They seem to be a team very similar to Michigan that tends to overpower their opponents. They have a very good pitcher in Gibson, as well. However, we know that Angela can hold off the best hitters in the world, and I think the Hokies’ speed advantage will help them. Plus, Tech has already played on that field, in that setting, and pulled off the greatest upset in softball history.
I do think they will struggle with the west coast teams, however. Tech’s defense has been a little shaky at times, and Arizona and UCLA will pressure them with the same speed the Hokies have used against UT and UM. Plus, their hitters are all one notch above their Hokie counterparts. If Tech can somehow avoid those two teams, I like their chances.
(end of email)
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