Sky’s the only limit on pitch totals
Unlike in baseball, pitchers throw for as long as they feel up to it
When Texas pitcher Miranda Elish threw 429 pitches over four games on consecutive days to help the Longhorns win their NCAA softball regional last weekend, the question arose: How much is too much?
Pitch count isn’t as significant in the sport as it is in baseball, two former Olympic softball pitchers said.
In baseball, pitch counts are monitored more closely, from Little League to high school to the majors.
Little League pitchers across the U.S. and high school pitchers in Texas are limited in the number of pitches they can throw per game based on their age. Those numbers range from as few as 50 pitches per day for 7-year-olds under Little League rules to as many as 110 in a game for 17-year-olds under University Interscholastic League rules covering the state’s high schools. Based on the number of pitches thrown, pitchers are required to rest for a certain amount of time before they can take the mound again.
In softball, pitchers routinely throw more than 100 pitches per game without limits.
Every pitcher is different, and not everyone can do what Elish did, two-time Olympic medalist Cat Osterman said. But if a pitcher has the mechanics and the endurance, they can pull it off, she said.
“It boils down to how much you train them and how in shape you are,” said Osterman, who pitched in high school at Cypress Springs and in college at Texas. “What she did was absolutely phenomenal.
“There’s a science in baseball about pitch count, but there’s not necessarily a science about it in softball. You go off what your pitcher is telling you and what you’re seeing on the field.”
In 35 appearances this season, Elish has thrown 100 pitches at least 10 times (pitch counts
weren’t available for two of her starts) and, going into the Longhorns’ super regional at Alabama that starts Thursday, has averaged nearly 80 pitches per game.
For two-time Olympic gold medalist Christa Williams Yates, seeing Elish throw 429 pitches wasn’t as surprising. Elish is a competitor, she’s intense, and she was ready for the battle, according to Yates.
“It’s a lot of pitches. There’s no getting around that,” said Yates, who coaches at Friendswood.
As high as 429 pitches seems, consider the combined 710 that two pitchers racked up in a 56-inning doubleheader between Creighton and Utah in the 1991
Western Athletic Conference championship.
Creighton’s Kelly Brookhart threw 390 pitches, while Utah’s Janet Womack threw 320. Both pitched all 31 innings of the first game. Womack didn’t pitch in the second game, but Brookhart threw the final 201⁄3 innings for the Bluejays in the 25-inning second game.
There are fewer medical studies on pitching injuries in softball than baseball, but Osterman and Yates both said technique is the important thing to avoid injury.
“If you can keep throwing with good mechanics and you get to that spot, then you’re able to continue throwing longer than some other pitchers,” Osterman said.
Yates, who pitched in high school at Pasadena Dobie and in college at UCLA and Texas, said a high pitch count becomes frightening with younger athletes because their bodies aren’t prepared to handle that type of strain.
College athletes, Yates said, are by contrast trained by professionals who know the game at such a high level, preparing them for those situations.
“Everybody wants to put the emphasis on the amount of pitches that are being thrown by the pitchers, but it’s not an emphasis on the fact that the bats are hotter than they’ve ever been in their entire life,” Yates said. “That coupled with the fact that the strike zone is shrinking, that you’re forcing the pitchers to throw even more strikes and more pitches.”