As they enter the postseason, area high school baseball coaches have taken to counting pitching arms instead of pitches made.
“We still use pitch counts, but they’re more as an indicator for each pitcher,” said Ooltewah coach Brian Hitchcox, whose team won District 5-AAA’s regular-season title. “At this point of the year, kids are in such good shape. You’re only going to roll them out there every five or six days. If a kid has thrown 100 pitches and he’s still feeling good, we would let him continue to pitch as long as he was still effective.”
Coaches go through the 25-game schedules, though, with postseason pitching in mind.
“Pitching dictates the game. That’s the bottom line,” said Travis Adams, whose Bradley Central team will begin District 5-AAA play Saturday afternoon against Soddy-Daisy. “In high school our defensive play and offensive approaches follow the pitching performance. If we have a guy out there battling and giving his team a chance, it brings the team concept to the forefront.”
It’s likely that Adams will start pro-draft candidate and Clemson signee Cole Brand in the best-of-three semifinal series.
“If we run somebody like Cole, who’s a shutdown pitcher, out there, I feel like we’re always going to have a chance to win. Baseball is all about good pitching,” Adams said.
There are a number of shutdown-type pitchers in the Chattanooga area, including Soddy-Daisy’s Andrew McWilliams, Cleveland’s Dustin Lawson and Ooltewah’s Garrett Baugh.
Baugh, the Tennessee Tech signee who didn’t give up an earned run, likely will miss the postseason after being struck by a batted ball while sitting in the Ooltewah dugout in a recent game.
“I don’t want to speak for him or his parents, but as far as I know he is (through for the year),” Hitchcox said.
Baugh was the Owls’ No. 1 pitcher and played first base when he wasn’t on the mound, so Hitchcox has made adjustments.
“Some roles are going to be shifted as we get into the tournament,” he said.
The biggest adjustment is among the starting pitchers, with every candidate bumping up a spot. But there are options for Ooltewah pitching coach Craig Trent. The Owls have 13 pitchers, including four lefties, listed on their dugout chart.
“Depending on how deep we get into the tournaments, I feel comfortable with any of them,” Hitchcox said. “Our No. 5 guy beat (6-AA champion) Red Bank 3-1 the other day.”
The Owls’ then No. 2, Quade Campbell, no-hit 5-AAA runner-up Soddy-Daisy in a game shortened by fog. And Daniel Sheets, who came up big in the 2009 postseason, is back pitching after working through some elbow problems.
“There’s no such thing as too much pitching,” Hitchcox said.
Good pitching usually wins over good hitting when one considers that a big-league hitter’s success benchmark is three hits in 10 at-bats.
“In high school, even if somebody has a hitter that’s smoking hot, you can put him on and make the other guys beat you,” Adams said.
Boyd-Buchanan went undefeated in District 5-A games with a handful of starting pitchers. Buccaneers pitching coach Clay Parker has developed a staff that gives head coach Steve Robbins the opportunity to pick and choose starters.
“I had always coached pitchers and catchers, but Clay pitched for the Yankees, Tigers and Mariners, and having Clay is a plus,” Robbins said. “His big thing is innings pitched. Last year we had seven guys who were within two or three innings of each other by season’s end.”
Robbins believes he has several top-drawer pitchers including the Crowe twins, Andrew and Matthew, Parker’s son Clayton, Eric Tompkins and Trey Tallant, who does much of the catching.
Tennessee district tournaments* 5-A at higher seed* 6-A at Lookout Valley* 5-AA at higher seed* 6-AA at Hixson* 7-AA at Sequatchie County* 5-AAA at Rhea County
“I feel like we have three to five No. 1s. If it does dome down to pitching in the tournaments, we should be in good shape,” Robbins said.
Red Bank coach Bumper Reese is in a similar position. His starters for district games included Hunter Holmes, Gunter Barton, Andy Christopher and Tyler Stott.
“It just depends on who has had the most rest and who feels good that day,” Reese said. “We have kids we feel are better starters. We worked all the guys during the season to see who was better as a starter and as a reliever. That’s what the whole season’s about — who can be good at the end.”
Pitching comes with variety. It can be a numbers game, a power game or even a finesse game.
“We want our pitchers to pound the strike zone, hit spots and keep the batters off balance and keep the ball down and get ground-ball outs,” Adams said. “It isn’t like the county fair where you rear back and throw it as hard as you can. We want our guys to make every pitch with a purpose — in, out, up, down. I have seen left-handers who throw 70 miles per hour shut people down. They throw off-speed stuff for strikes, and it makes their fastball look that much faster.”