Hit Your Cutoff!

Hi Sluggies – Coach Tam here, posting from NYC…or JFK International to be more accurate.

Before our loss to Beer 30 becomes too faint a memory, I wanted to share some notes about the game. We could have won, seriously. Our bats were hot. We scored 6 or 7 runs in the first inning, and followed with another excellent showing later in the game.

Our problem is fielding. And it’s not even really a catching issue. The balls are only very rarely getting over our heads. We missed a few fly balls, but that’s normal, A-OK for D1 co-ed softball. We do a good job of getting our hands on the ball. BUT, then we sort of fall apart.

Fmr. Coach Kepley has been talking about this for years. “Hit your cutoffs,” he would say. “OK, sure. That makes sense,” I thought but it didn’t truly register until our game against Beer 30.

In most cases, if a ball comes to you in the outfield, you should throw it to the shortstop. Getting the ball safely into the infield is critical. It essentially stops the base runners in their tracks. Now, that base runner may be headed for 3^rd base, and throwing it to the shortstop isn’t going to get us an out. But 9 times out of 10, throwing it to third base from the outfield is going to lead to a run rather than an out. It’s really really hard to get that big ball accurately to third base. It doesn’t matter how good your arm is our how totally awesome out third basewoman is. We’re just inviting trouble. The 3^rd base case was merely an example. Throwing it to 2^nd base or home plate is just as perilous. Even, throwing it to third from first to catch an advancing runner is risky.

The point here is it’s very very easy to get caught up in the moment. You have the ball, you’re thinking “Oh crap, the runner’s taking an extra base, I shouldn’t let that happen.” It may hurt not to make the play…but until we get much much better at actually making the play, we will have more success just bringing the ball into the shortstop, getting it to the pitcher and stopping play…or stopping the bleeding whatever the case may be.

If we had been just a little smarter with our ball management, we could have beaten Beer 30. They were the top team in the league this season, and we had them scared. So, Slugs, be proud of your accomplishments, be very proud.

Please be kind to coach Kepley and kick the *itten *ats asses. Let’s finish this season off with another win.

Then, I am very much looking forward to next season, when we will take on some new opponents (including Chris), and start our reign as the champions of the D1.5 league (I am not yet willing to admit that we’ve been demoted to D-2, but the only other team from our spring league in this one is the dreaded Weezer doppelgangers themselves).