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The pitchers in this week's state tournament are masters of much more than just fastballs.
By JOHN SCHWARB, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 8, 2002
All eyes are on Beth DiPietro, and that's fine by her.
The Riverview pitcher stands on a slab of rubber 40 feet from home plate, the center of the softball field and the center of attention. On this region final Saturday night, against rival Bloomingdale, everyone in the stadium knows who she is and what she does.
Every opposing hitter has seen the junior's "stuff", the types of pitches she throws. They've studied her delivery, velocity, movement.
It doesn't matter.
By night's end, Bloomingdale (a team that was 25-6 going in, mind you) will have managed one hit off of DiPietro, and Riverview will have a win and a state final four berth.
Score yet another victory for pitching.
"It's more of a having-fun thing," DiPietro said. "Everybody tells me I look so serious, but that's me. I don't see anything except the catcher and batter. I am having fun."
For the best teams in high school softball, the fun always starts on the pitching rubber.
The state tournament begins today at Ed Radice Park in Tampa, with 24 teams in six classifications vying for titles.
That's fast-pitch softball, not the lob-ball game played at picnics and in beer leagues. It's just what the name suggests, featuring pitchers who could pass for underhanded versions of Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens.
That's not an exaggeration. From 40 feet away, the best pitchers' fastballs can be clocked at nearly 70 mph. That's comparable to a 95 mph baseball heater from 60 feet, 6 inches.
It can be just as unhitable, and such velocity coupled with movement can make for a devastating combination.
"If you have a dominating pitcher, you can go pretty far," River Ridge coach Ernie Beck said. "You can't get away with mediocre pitching."
Of the 24 teams in Tampa this week, there are at least as many dominant pitchers, including five from area teams.
DiPietro of Riverview is a strikeout machine, with 377punchouts in 2152/3 innings. Countryside's Bree Spence also has shown a knack for making batters look bad, striking out 32 in three playoff shutouts.
Durant's Mandy Garcia, who makes up for a lack of high velocity with pinpoint accuracy, has stepped up late in the season to lead the Cougars to their first state tournament.
River Ridge's Beck has an even greater luxury with his daughter, Christine, and Kiki Von Holt, two right-handers he will trust with starting assignments if the Royal Knights win Thursday.
Each of the group boasts an impressive repertoire of pitches, some used to induce a ground ball to a certain spot, some to get an inning-ending popup. That's not to mention the strikeout pitch.
It's not unlike baseball, though try finding a baseball pitcher who throws a riseball.
Asked to list the pitches in her arsenal, DiPietro starts with "uh, wow," and then manages to rattle them off. There's the cut fastball, curveball, screwball, drop and rise.
Five in all, each different though a batter might not know until it's a couple of feet in front of the plate. That's the beauty of it.
Coaches and players agree that in today's world of year-round softball, where players hone their skills not just on high school teams, but on travel teams and in other local leagues, straight gas is not a sure weapon anymore. By the second and third at-bats in a game, good hitters figure it out.
"You can throw the ball as hard as you can, but sooner or later someone is going to time it," Spence said. "A good pitcher doesn't just throw, they need to know how to pitch, how to read a batter, communicate with a catcher."
The casual fan will never see it from a seat in the bleachers, but within the many contortions a player will go through to deliver a pitch, the smallest movement in the hand decides what a hitter sees and perhaps decides the game.
"Just the slightest little wrist movement or finger placement or finger flicker can determine whether your ball is in the strike zone or in the dirt, or a home run," Spence said.
DiPietro remembers the hit Bloomingdale got in the seventh that broke up her no-hit bid. It was on a pitch meant for the inside corner that caught too much of the plate.
In her no-hitter against Naples in the region final, Spence allowed two balls hit out of the infield, one a ground ball that rightfielder Kit Dunbar grabbed and fired to first for an out.
That play never happens in baseball, but it's not uncommon in softball behind a good pitcher. Right-handed hitters might be late and hit weak grounders, and alert outfielders can creep up and make plays. For Countryside, rightfielders have made more assists this year to first on grounders than putouts on fly balls.
That also requires great defense, without which even the best pitching efforts can go for nothing. Softball defenses are built around a pitcher, another part of the chess game coaches play. Some call every pitch from the dugout, and many strategically position fielders to maximize a pitcher's effectiveness.
"As consistent as (DiPietro) is, we can set up a defense," Riverview coach Angela Slater said. "We're built to be stronger middle-right, as opposed to middle-left. We need our second baseman."
So, what will all this mean at the state tournament? Put it this way, forget about sitting behind the outfield fence waiting to shag home run balls.
In the 2001 tournament, 83 runs were scored in 18 games, 4.6 per game (the state baseball tournament had eight runs per game). Half of the games were shutouts, and only one of the six championship games had more than three runs scored.
No-hitters in a state tournament game are unlikely, but a showdown between top pitchers is usually a recipe for zeros in the run column, perhaps many extra innings' worth.
Ask softball coaches and they'll have a story about a 1-0 game that lasted for hours. In recent years, Countryside has played 12-, 13-, 14- and 21-inning marathons, each ending 1-0.
In 14 years, the state tournament has had just two extra-inning contests, 3-2 and 1-0 in eight innings. But both came in the last three years.
"The team who wins a game like that takes advantage of any situation, a walk, an error, a wild pitch. You manufacture a run," Durant coach Melissa Sigmon said.
"That's just softball."