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Bob's Wisconsin High School Fastpitch Bulletins for 2004-2005 School Year

Bob's Wisconsin High School Fastpitch Bulletins for 2005-2006 School Year

The Fastpitch Bulletin – Volume 6, Number 1
February 15, 2007

Hello again everyone – The fastpitch season is just around the corner and don’t forget about the WFSCA clinic this weekend in Stevens Point. The clinic committee promises to have a great clinic slate line up for you once you get there.
The Bulletins will continue through the season as they have before. I’ll not make any promises in terms of having one out every night but there will certainly be three or four per week.
We’ll also be doing the team rankings by division of play. I have to secure a few rankers yet but that will be wrapped up in the near future.
I’d like to let you know that there will be a Fastpitch Chronicle clinic in Poynette on Saturday, February 24th and one in Medford on Sunday, February 25th. For information on the clinics you can go to The Fastpitch Chronicle website at www.fastpitchchronicle.com and click on the technical page icon from the home page. If you or some of your players are interested in taking part in one or both of the clinics, contact me as soon as possible or Virgil Berndt for the Medford clinic.
I know there are few of you getting this bulletin whom are no longer involved with the game and no longer want to receive the bulletins. Just send me an e-mail response and I’ll remove your e-mail address from the appropriate list.
That’s about it for tonight and perhaps we’ll cross paths at the clinic this weekend.

Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin - Volume 6, Number 2 - March 6, 2007

Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd!

Hello Again everyone - We're just six days away from Day Number one of the season here in Wisconsin. Tonight, in Columbia County anyway there is more snow falling. The Rules Interpretation meeting was in Portage tonight and it was snowing pretty hard there as it is here at my place just south of Portage.

The snow two weekends ago forced us to cancel our Fastpitch Chronicle clinic in Medford and that was the first time we've had to do that. Although it snowed every year we went to Medford, this year was an issue whereby I couldn't even get out of my driveway.

If you get this bulletin and you don't want anymore sent to you, don't get ticked off at me, just e-mail back to me and tell me to remove you from the list. I need to know, however, which list you are getting so be sure to tell me whether you are on A, B, C, D, E, or F. There are more than 1600 people getting this bulletin tonight.

I highly doubt if anyone will be out on their fields on the first day of practice this year.

From what I've been seeing at our Wednesday night free pitching clinics in Poynette, the pitchers are all ready to face some batters and get after it. They've been tuning things up throughout the winter all over the state and are ready to go. Everyone will have their eyes set on Goodman Diamond at the end of the season.

I was interested in the explanation of the new guidelines for interference and obstruction but interpreting them during the game when they occur will be the issue, as it always is. One step and a reach is very judgemental. But, they all are, right?

I enjoyed the reading the little box on the front of the 2007 handout from the meeting. It says, Coaches and/or officials alone or in combination have NO authority to set aside any National Federation or WIAA rules/regulation.

They should probably include "or makeup any either."

I need to be sure and teach my kids not to scratch out those lines or cover them up with dirt because the third time it happens the coach is gone!

I also chuckled when I read one of the slides at the rules meeting. The one I'm talking about is the one that explains the 20 second rule and enforcing a strike if the batter is not ready. The line I chuckled at was the one where it said the coach should be concise in giving signals from the coaches box. Coaches giving signals from outside the coaches box is the norm more than not. Of course, there is not penalty for being outside the coaches box.

March 9th is the due date for umpires to have their Tournament availability forms in to the WIAA office. That only gives you two days. March 23rd is the due date for officials to have their tests back to the WIAA office. Coaches are to do their tests in house and hand them in to your athletic director.

The list of approved bats is at www.asasoftball.com/about/certified_equipment.asp so you can go there and print out a copy so you have it when the umpires as you for your copy. Everyone is supposed to have a copy of it - coaches, umpires alike.

The WIAA Coaches Advisory Committee coaches are: Jane Briehl of River Valley, Brad Brogley of Seymour, Craig Diedrich of Athens, Richard Frost of Neenah, Doug Schmitz of Bruce, and Karen Scarseth of Wisconsin Rapids (Coaches Association Representative). Rick Gloe of DePere is the umpire on the Advisory committee.

If anyone is still looking for varsity, JV or freshman games, get in touch with me. Poynette still has an opening for all three of those levels. If you still needs games or want to make announcements to the entire state - just e-mail to me and I'll include the stuff in the next bulletin.

There is a good explanation of the NFHS Designated/Flex Player rule in the handouts. There is also a great explanation in the past two years worth of bulletins that you can access by going back to those bulletins.

I'm ready for people to send in pre-season previews on your teams and your conferences. I've completed all my basketball coaching duties for the past season and am ready to start focusing on fastpitch now. E-mail me your stuff and get ready to start forwarding your scores and game summaries.

Rankers should start working on your pre-season rankings. I'll try to get those out by the end of the second week of the season.

I didn't make it to the clinic in Stevens Point due to vehicle issues. I missed seeing many of you there.

That's about it for tonight!
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin, Volume 6, Number 3 for March 7, 2007

It's a "humpback liner" that falls in for a single!
Hello Again everyone
My inbox was filled with all kinds of messages today. Many, many of them were those undeliverable messages because people's e-mail addresses have changed since last June. I spent a couple of hours last night and a couple more today cleaning all those (every one of them) off the various lists I have here. I also spent a mess of time removing the addresses of people who e-mailed to me and told me to remove their addresses because they are no longer coaching. If you are getting this bulletin and you don't want to get them just e-mail to me and be sure to include the bulletin so just hit reply and type your message. That way I'll know which list to look on to erase you from the game. I think I have taken care of all those requests.

I also spent about 20 minutes adding a bunch of new people to the lists. I enjoy adding people to our roster and getting them in The Fastpitch Chronicle starting lineup.

Don't forget to get your dues paid to the WFSCA organization. They need to be taken care of by April 15th or you don't qualify as a member for post-season awards for your players or yourself. If you win the state title and aren't a member, the WFSCA won't pay for your state championship ring and what a shame that would be eh? Check out the WFSCA website at www.wfsca.org for more information on membership issues. Those folks will be glad to help you out.

At the rules meeting last night in Portage we learned all about the new rule for obstruction and interference. It's still a judgement call though so you better watch closely to see whether or not there is a delayed dead ball signal hanging off the end of the umpire's shoulder. A situation was mentioned by our Fastpitch Chronicle rule interpreter John Peterson. The question came up the night before. Here it is and then I'll give you my thoughts on it. Ball is hit to first sacker who boots the play but the ball lands up in foul territory inside the running shoot but within a step and reach. The batter-runner then collides with the fielder. I think the runner is out for interference even though she is inside the shoot because that running shoot rule pertains to a play being made from behind her and not in front of her. She isn't interfering with the play because the ball beat her to the place where it now lies. Dave Schwanke had it right I think when he said, "interference is interference!"

John will be letting us know what he finds out from rule interpreters higher up than he is.

OK - Here is that question again from last year. Rule on this one! Batter hits a line drive that hits the third sacker in the head while she is in fair territory and so is the ball. The ball is hit so hard that it sails over the sideline fence along the third baseline. A couple of my umpire friends in the high school ranks keep telling me it's a ground rule double but a major league umpire says otherwise. I got the question from the major league umpire while we were both attending the ISC Men's World Fastpitch Championship. So what is your call?

Here is another one for new coaches and scorekeepers to ponder and old ones too. Bottom of the seventh with the score tied. Runner at third base. Batter hits a ball in the gap and off the fence. How do you score that at bat for the batter? (This one actually happened to our Poynette team in the WIAA State Championship game in 1998 vs Greendale).

Here's another scoring review for you - Name the plate appearances that do not qualify as an "at bat."

Another one - batter swings and hits the catcher's mitt -- A) also hits the ball and it advances all runners and the batter one base safely B) no contact with the ball is made. Score the two situations.

Last one for tonight - runner at third and a liner hits the shortstop's glove and pops higher into the air where the second sacker then catches it before it hits the ground. The runner at third heads home after her break off the bag on first touching.

OK - one more - Your game is at home and when it's over you fail to report the score to the newspapers, the TV stations, the radio stations and to Bob at the Fastpitch Chronicle website. Who suffers from that error?

Answer to that last question? Your players, the opposing players, every fan that reads the paper, listens to the radio, watches the TV set and reads the Fastpitch Chronicle game reports. Hardly a football, volleyball, basketball, wrestling match etc. fail to get reported during those respective seasons, but softball coaches are notorious for using the "I don't have enough time" excuse for not reporting scores. The bottom line folks is -- our sport suffers when a coach or a team rep fails to report scores. The biggest loser is fastpitch softball.

Softball coaches are also notorious for not sending in pre-season surveys to their daily and weekly papers and for not doing umpire evaluations at the end of the year. Our group of coaches had one of the worst , if not the worst percentage of returns from any sport in the WIAA after last season. That's not a good thing! Complete the process.

I also urge you to join the WFSCA. The organization is working for the coaches and for the game. It's an organization aimed at coaches!

That's plenty for tonight! Thanks to all of you who sent the complimentary e-mails about the bulletins. If you have crazy plays or scoring questions just e-mail them to me and I'll get the answers from the experts.

Have a great day and as always -----
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin - Volume 6, Number 4 March 11, 2007

Put me in Coach, I’m ready today! Look at me, I can play centerfield

Hello Again Everyone,

I’ve cleaned off the 2006 team and conference preview page and have already added the East Central Conference preview that was submitted by Tim Whitford from Winneconne. The coaches in that conference are reminded that you can add stuff to that preview or send in your own. I have also added a brief look at the Southeast Conference that Nathan Vance submitted but there is more information from other coaches that should be added so send it to me.

You should also know that Tim Husted, the General Manager of the Danes, a summer program, has submitted an article that appears on the features page of the website. Just click on the features line when you get to the Wisconsin High School girls’ page of my website. I’ve left last year’s features on there for a while just in case someone wants to read them again or take a look at the kind of stuff the website offers.

On March 24th there is a scrimmage scheduled to take place in McFarland. Right now there are three schools involved and we are looking for a fourth one to jump in. The three are McFarland, Middleton and Poynette. The cost of the scrimmage is $75 to cover the umpires that McFarland brings in. It will start at 9 am and you will scrimmage all three teams for about 75 minutes or so. You can contact me to secure the fourth spot as I told my longtime friend Steve Schmikla that I’d take over. Speaking of Steve, I’m happy and proud to announce that his daughter Stephanie has given Concordia in St. Paul, a NCAA Division 2 institution, a verbal commitment to play fastpitch softball there. Steph is a great kid and I wish her the best this year and beyond. Steve, of course, is just one of just five coaches in the history of high school girls’ softball in the state of Wisconsin to reach the 400 win level.

Here’s another announcement that might interest someone. My good friend Brian Phelps of Gilman is looking at bringing his club down to Poynette and using our facility to get some early practice in because he doubts if his field will be ready to use that early. He’s looking for a game against someone in Poynette on Tuesday, April 3rd. If you are interested in playing Gilman, a very strong Division 4 program that has been at the state tournament multiple times in the past few years, just let me know or let Brian know. We’d take care of both teams with a food and beverages after the game. Our schedule is full so we can’t play that game against them.

Marilyn Rogers of Adams-Friendship forwarded an intriguing question to me but before she gave me time to think about it and offer an answer she gave the answer to me. Here it is. Explain how a batter could see 11 pitches, never swing the bat and get called out on strikes for that turn at the plate. By the way, I could have pondered this one for a long time and never gotten the answer. Have at it. I might even offer a prize to the people who submit the correct answer – so Marilyn, don’t help them out.

I have those triple play certificates here now. I sent a few out last year. If you still want one for last year I’ll send them to you. I have to know the names of the players involved, the school they played for, the date of the game and the opponent. If you have a triple play this year just submit all that information to me and I’ll send out the certificates immediately (at least within two days). They look pretty spiffy and make a great framed piece for someone’s wall.

The season officially begins tomorrow (It’s Sunday night). I hauled a bunch of equipment around at school today to get ready for that first indoor practice. This will be my 28th first day of fastpitch practice. I know there are few coaches in the state that are a couple years ahead of me – like Darrell Laschen up in Loyal, Steve Schmikla in McFarland and Bob LeCaptain at Green Bay West but I am one of the fossils in the state. We’ve seen it all from the get go – like 12-game schedules and pitching restrictions where the number of innings a kid could pitch was limited much the same as baseball; Division 1 championship game scores that were like slowpitch scores because those teams seldom had enough pitching to stretch into a three-day event down there in Waukesha.

I’m looking forward to working with a group of very young, eager kids that simply want to pull on our black and orange uniforms. What more could a coach ask for?

Have a great first day!
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin - March 15, 2001

Let it Rip!

Hello Everyone - And there a lot of you to say hello to as we are now over 1800 people on the various lists getting these bulletins. That's a lot of people. And take a look at how many hits the website gets. It's incredible!

I've posted more pre-season previews so take a look at those and if you haven't forwarded something about your team, type something up and submit it.

Games begin next week. Our diamond is now void of snow but is wet. A couple of nice days and we'll be on it and get a game or two in next week. Schools farther south in Wisconsin than us might be there already. Schools in the north? Well, as I've always said, I have empathy for all you people up there.

There is a player clinic in Middleton and here is the note I got from Cherie, the coach at Middleton High School.

Bob,
Could you please put this out to your email list? Middleton is having a youth clinic this Saturday March 17th with 1996 Olympian Gold Medal winner Julie Smith. Please tell people if they would like to sign up to call Jeff Simon directly. (608) 836-7244
Thanks - Cherie Hellenbrand - Middleton High School - 608-829-9974

Here is a message from Craig Otto in Onalaska
Bob:
Here’s a link to last year’s MVC schedule/standings page and season summary page on the league Web site. Don’t have this year’s composite conference schedule posted yet, but when I do, I’ll forward a link for that to you as well. One note from last year’s all-conference teams, Jodie Muth has transferred from Onalaska to Aquinas.
Craig
http://www.gomvc.org/0506sb.htm
http://www.gomvc.org/0506sbsmry.doc

Here is a message from some folks in the Eau Claire area that might be of some interest to some of you.

Hello,
Bob Meixner asked me to e-mail you about his forming U12 team. We are currently looking for young players to join the traveling team. We will play most weekends from May through July and expect to play in the Wisconsin State Tournament. Most of the tournaments will be in the Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Twin Cities area.
If you have anyone you think I should contact directly, please let me know. Otherwise, if you would be able to disseminate this to anyone and everyone you feel appropriate we would appreciate it. If you have any other questions about our team, please let me know.
Thank you,
Emily Long
Bob Meixner
7154978970
bmeixner@nelson-tel.net
and/or
Emily Long
7152716369
clayandemily@charter.net

Here is the answer to Marilyn Roger's question.
the runner on base got thrown out on a 3-2 count to end the inning. Then the next inning the girl took a 3-2 riseball for her 11th pitch.

The first week of the season is nearly over.

I made a couple of mistakes last week in the Bulletin. Steve Schmikla is starting his 28th or 29th year not his 30th and Bob LeCaptain is starting his 27th no this 30th. I think that makes Darrell Laschen of Loyal and me the two coaches that have been at this longest. This is my 28th year!

Here are just a few of the changes I have watched take place.
Big heavy bats replaced by short light ones
white balls replaced by optic yellow with red stitches
pitchers limited to how many innings they can pitch to unlimited pitching
helmets required for kids under 18 in the field of play
mandatory breast cups on catcher's pads no longer required
helmets required for catchers and now must be NOCSAE approved
face masks on catcher's masks must be NOCSAE approved
double first base
face masks on batting and running helmets
an approved bat list
state tournament played on grass infields with 300' foot fences to now in a state of the art fastpitch site
a few hundred people at state tournament to overflow crowds that are forced to leave after a game
No publicity to weekly rankings and a website that features hundreds of game reports

A few things that haven't changed
girls still required to wear plastic or rubber cleats
girls keep getting injured due to having to wear required plastic or rubber cleats
increasing number of rules each year to clarify the recently enacted new rules from the previous year
more and more rules being added
the number of runs scored in the average game (yellow balls have made no difference in run production)
the number of runs scored when two good pitchers square off (yellow balls still don't get hit very often)
an alarmingly high percentage of coaching changes statewide in this sport
fans at games that don't know the rules but still scream at umpires, coaches and kids

I'm sure some of you can come up with a long list of things that could be added to my short list.

Hey have a great day and as always

Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin Volume 6, Number 6 March 20, 2007

Tinkers to Evers to Chance!

Oh, that’s right, that’s baseball, a different game all together. Aha, but there are only a few that really know that secret!

Hello Again Everyone – Hey, we played a game in Poynette tonight. We even played the JV game on that diamond. Pioneer Westfield came down and we got both regularly scheduled non-conference tilts in on our fields. It was good to get some strange hitters against our pitchers and I’m sure the Pioneers felt the same way. We had been outside just once and that was last night and we stayed off the diamond as the frost was coming out. We raked the really soft spots and they dried up and there was actually dust on those spots before we left practice at 5 PM. Our diamonds are just one reason why many teams come back to the Jamboree every year. It’s really tough to rain us out here.

The game was a pretty typical first game for two young teams. We had three errors and they had five. The final was 12-2. It was the 400th win for Poynette since I have been the coach. The kids didn’t know anything about that issue prior to the game as we never mentioned it last year or during the first week of practice this year.

Our team is very inexperienced as we had some screwy things take place since last year’s state tournament. Our first team all state third baseman chose to graduate early in January. Our three-time all state and first team all state outfielder in 2006 chose to go out for our soccer team as did our first team all conference second baseman. Our projected senior leftfielder then decided to get a job to try to make some cash for college. That was 4/9 of our starting lineup. We have some eager learners, however who are willing to risk failure early on in order to get better as we go.

Tonight, our sophomore shortstop laced a two-out, three-run double to get us into the lead. That was pretty neat in itself but here is the rest of the story. That kid’s mother played for me as a freshman in 1981 and graduated as an all conference outfielder for us in 1985. She was a fantastic player and if there had been all state players in those early days, Debbie would have certainly been on the list. She remains one of the top players in the history of our program. To have the chance to write her daughter’s name into the fifth spot in our batting order was a treat. After the current kid got back to second base on the double I told her that I thought her mom would have gotten to third on that shot to rightcenter. She just smiled at me. I’m not sure if the current sophomore really has a clue as to just how great her mom was.

That’s just one of the joys that happens when you stick things out over a long period of time. People keep asking me how long I’m going to keep at coaching softball. My answer is always, “as long as they keep coming to practice looking to improve and learn new techniques, I’m interested in sticking with them.” My biggest issues are the physical part of the job. Raking infields takes its toll on a 56 year-old body. So does pitching batting practice to them. Thank heavens I invented Tomlinson’s Ultimate Fungo years ago. With that racket I can hit four or five times as many fly balls, pop ups, ground balls as you can with your bats and with a lot less effort. I don’t have to bend over to pick up balls and then toss them into the air, swing a bat and then do it all over again.

OK – so the game summary for tonight’s game appears in the Week 1 summary. Be sure to read the fictional game summary between Hooterville and Bug Tussel so you can figure out the best way to e-mail me your game summaries once you start playing.

I don’t have as much time to post stuff as I have had the past few years. I’m pretty busy but I’ll get to the stuff. I don’t retype stuff for anyone but I do a little editing and proofing for you.

Don’t forget to join the coaches association and every conference ought to have a conference rep for the WFSCA. I am not a WFSCA official. I’m just a member like most of you. The Board names are posted on the wfsca.org website so you can get that information there. April 14th is the new deadline to join so get it taken care of.

Rankings are in the process of being compiled for all divisions of play but they are tough to start with because not many people have forwarded preseason previews for the website. I’m sure there are coaches out there who still try to keep as much as they can a secret from the rest of the fastpitch world. Remember folks, in this day and age, you can’t hide from us. There are three lines of communication when it comes to fastpitch softball – 1) telephone 2) telegraph and 3) tell another fastpitch person.

As I’ve said before, the one alarming statistic that always jumps out at me is the high number of coaching changes year-in-and-year-out in softball. There aren’t many of us who have been at it 20+ years. It seems like 10 is the cutoff with five being the next number that seems to be prevalent. Coaches last 5 or 10 years and they stop.

Another part of the game that always bothers me is the fact that we don’t report injuries like some sports do. It has always amazed me that nobody seems to be interested in the types of injuries softball players incur but yet we have all these safety rules that get shoved down our throats. I for one, know there are lots of knee injuries occurring when players slip on hard rubber bases and home plates with rubber or plastic cleats because when it happens the coaches e-mail me. They do so because they know I’m pretty passionate about allowing the use of metal cleats. Until surveys are done by somebody on the types and frequency of injuries nothing will change in that regard. Changes occur when a kid gets hurt and somebody files a suit. For instance, New York City is passing a ruling whereby metal bats will be banned from high school baseball games. High school softball games will be right behind.

A number of years ago, we went to the double first base. From my viewpoint, the biggest issue with injuries around first base is the second sacker coming over there and standing right in the baseline on the outfield side of first base. Collision after collision occur there and there are so many near-collisions that it really is amazing that more kids don’t lose kidneys etc. there. Just watch closely and you’ll be saying, He’s right.”

Why is that happening. The second sacker is going over there to back up the throw to first on balls thrown from all over the infield including shortstop and third base. Just watch! You’ll see that to be the truth. The problem is, so many back the throw up about six to eight feet beyond the base right in the path of runners going over the bag at full speed. Second sackers’ don’t belong there. They don’t belong there!! If the runner collides with that second sacker and then tries to get to second base, I think that would be obstruction. Correct? Most of them can’t head for second though, because they just got injured.

So, keep e-mailing those stories of crazy plays and ones that cause injuries. I’m genuinely interested in all of them.

Have a great day and as always,
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin - March 26th, 2007

BPF = 1.20 but only when contact is achieved!

Hello Everyone - It has been a few days since the last Bulletin was sent out and I have a little time tonight to compile something for you.

We had a good scrimmage on Saturday at McFarland. Everyone learned something, the umpires were fantastic and the food, all endorsed, according to the sign at the concession stand, by The Fastpitch Chronicle was also good. McFarland really knows how to treat people (until you have to play them and then they become tigers).

Here are some situations that arrived in my inbox today from the WIAA so read and enjoy and comprehend as well.

Question 1 Can a pitcher wear a pitching toe?
Answer Rule 3-2-11 prohibits metal toe plates. If the pitching toe is plastic or rubber it would be allowed.

Question 2 The pitcher has the ball in her possession. The batter steps out to take signals from the base coach. If the batter takes 15 seconds does this mean the pitcher has only 5 seconds remaining to release the pitch?
Answer From the NFHS: "They both have the 20 seconds. The pitcher can't deliver the ball unless the batter gets into the box. The umpire could enforce the violation on either one." The NFHS Rules ommittee will discuss this at their summer meeting.

Question 3 Slow grounder to first base. First baseman does not field the ball cleanly and the ball is within a step and a reach. The ball is in front of first base in foul territory and in the running lane. What rights does the batter-runner have? Since the path to the colored base is blocked by the defensive player the batter-runner can't touch the colored portion of the base. Is the batter-runner allowed to run outside the running lane to avoid contact with a fielder attempting to make a play?
Answer From the NFHS: "Since the ball is within a step and a reach, this is still the initial play and it is up to the runner to avoid the defensive player. This would be no different if it were the runner going to
second base and this was directly in the base path of the runner before reaching second. It is the obligation of the runner to give way when a fielder is making the initial play on the ball, even if it means leaving their base path. Rule 8-6-10a".

Question 4 The pitcher steps on the mound with her hands apart. She then moves the glove so that it is hiding the ball but clearly not touching if you were viewing her from the third base side. It was not nearly as clear from behind the plate and first base. She then separated her hands then brought them together again to being her pitching motion. Questions are: A) Rule 6-1-1a; "...the hands separated." How far is this? Is this a judgment call for each umpire? B) "...bring hands together in front of body..." Does together mean touching? C) Glove covering the ball on the hip is not the front of the body?
Answer From the NFHS: "A) There is not a limit on the distance. The plate umpire and the batter must be able to determine that the hands did indeed separate. B) Yes, the hand holding the ball must come in contact with the glove either inside the glove or outside the glove. C) When we say bringing together in front of the body, this is so the home plate umpire and the batter can see them together. Then once the hands have separated, everyone knows the pitch has begun. Must be visible from the front...so judgment by the umpire."

Question 5 For the initial play (step and reach) would that include diving for the ball?
Answer No. Rule 2-47 does not include diving as part of the definition of a "step and a reach".

Question 6 At the recent Softball Meetings the presenter mentioned that the double first base is considered "one big base". When does this happen? Answer Rule 8-10-3; "The batter runner or runner may touch the white or colored base: A) When advancing on balls hit to the outfield with no play being attempted or when returning to first base B) When tagging up on a fly ball C) When returning on an attempted pick-off play."

I have posted quite a few previews for conferences and teams so take a look at the 2007 preview page on the website. There are also game results on Week 1 and now Week 2 of the site so check those out too and be sure to e-mail your results to me.

Be forewarned that my e-mail address will probably be changing. I've been on America Online for a long, long time but I live out in the country and have only been able to get dial-up all this time. It's really time consuming waiting and waiting for things to load up. I can now get high speed internet access from our telephone company and although I don't like Century Tel, I think it's time to move to their high speed access and get things done quicker. I'll keep my AOL account for a couple of months to be sure to get the results you send me but I will be changing it to something else. I will try to keep the faspich1 part so it won't be that tough.

I would assume that most daily papers have now sent out their preseason surveys for coaches to fill out and get back to them. I got mine from Rob Hernandez at the State Journal today. Both Rob and Dennis Semrau at the Capitol Times tell me that spring coaches and softball coaches included are the worst they encounter in terms of getting information on those surveys returned. Let's make an effort to get that stuff to them.

Don't forget to join the WFSCA by April 14th or you and your players will be "shutout" of any post-season awards. Send it to Jane Briehl at River Valley as she is the WFSCA Treasurer.

The number of people receiving the Bulletins just keeps growing and growing and that is a good thing. Be sure to tell your players about the site.

Have a great day!
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin - Volume 6 Number 8 for March 28, 2007

It's a humpback liner with eyes!

Hello Again Fastpitch Buffs - I've been posting the scores that I get e-mailed to me and I have even posted a few from the State Journal that didn't get e-mailed to me. I won't be doing that very much though because I just don't have time.

If you want people to read more than just scores then you need to have somebody within your program e-mail the game reports that you do want people to read. Here is a sample from the Week 1 results. It's the same Bug Tussle vs Hooterville game summary that has been on the website for six years. Look at the summary and read the formatting instructions. It's really pretty easy and it makes my job of copying and paste very, very easy. All I have do then is copy it, paste it to the correct day's results and add the color heading and make it bold. That takes me about 15 seconds per game summary - total. That's easy for me and it's really easy for you or your person that you ask or assign to send it in.

Here it is and of course you can find it in the future at the top of the Week 1 results or on the commentary page under Volume 6 Number 8 bulletin (that's this one).

The following game summary is fictitious of course and is done to give you an idea of how to submit game information to this website. We typed in Bug Tussle and then used the period (dot) key to move out to the right and then struck three zeros with no spaces in between hits and errors. When we typed in Hooterville on line two we used the appropriate number of periods (dots) to line things up. The report was done in Microsoft Word but works on e-mail as well. Give it a try and forward your game results that way. Write a game summary after your line score if you wish similar to the Bug Tussle vs Hooterville game below.

Hooterville 1, Bug Tussle 0
Bug Tussle ..................... 000 000 0 .... 0 0 0
Hooterville ..................... 100 000 x .....1 1 0
WP-Drucker LP-Uncle Joe
SO- Drucker 19 Uncle Joe-18
Both Sam Drucker and Uncle Joe had their stuff going on this day. Hooterville scored the game's only run when Bobbie Jo hit a long fly ball to center that hit a pigeon that was flying overhead. Uncle Joe's centerfielder, Billie Jo had camped under the would-be out but the pigeon had an effect on the outcome. It discharged a large volume of a milky white substance upon impact from the ball and the discharge hit Billie Jo in the eye and she was unable to see the ball or catch it. Bobbie Jo circled the bases. When the game was over the entire Hooterville club jumped on the Cannonball Express and celebrated on the rails all the way home.

That's it. It looks good, it's easy to read and it gives everyone a good idea of how the game went.

Here's another announcement that people should be excited about - especially athletic directors and umpires.

A new website has been created by Portage Athletic Director Jim Langkamp to assist schools in finding umpires, and to assist umpires in finding more games to work. The website URL is www.OfficialsWanted.com It is a free website that allows schools to post ads looking for officials, and
officials to post their availability. This website will be especially useful during the spring season. Be sure to bookmark the site and use it as often as you need!

Jim will also be listing games for all the other sports so tell your officiating friends and your athletic directors about the new site.

Here is another key announcement. Hurley is in Division 4 this season so Division 3 and Division 4 rankers should take note and should also get their rankings to me right away. The statewide media is anxiously awaiting the first Fastpitch Chronicle statewide rankings. Those will be published in the Journal Sentinel next week the way it sounds.

Teams planning on playing in the Poynette Fastpitch Jamboree should check the Jamboree webpage on The Fastpitch Chronicle website starting Friday. I will list the teams that we have contracts from and on which day or days you asked for games. That schedule will be started very soon. I need to get umpires in line so keep checking that page. It's the official page for the Jamboree.

Poynette is looking for JV and JV reserve or freshman games for this spring yet. Contact me if you want to play our kids. We offer excellent pitching at both those levels of play so your players will get a look at pitches to swing at. We also have one opening for a varsity game as I don't want to play so many games at our own Jamboree - running the event is stressful enough.

Here is a play for you to think about. This play actually happened in a men's fastpitch game that I was umpiring in during an ASA Regional tournament years ago so don't think it can't happen to you when you are coaching or umpiring (I was the home plate umpire in that game). As a matter of fact, at Poynette, we instruct our baserunners to do exactly as I have described the following play. If you don't believe that, ask the umpires from the scrimmage in McFarland on Saturday where we scrimmaged. That play had them checking their rulebooks after the scrimmage was over. After having to rule on that play in a men's game I knew we had to start practicing it in girls' softball. Heck most of the special plays we run in our program are the direct result of crazy plays I have been involved in as a player, coach, umpire or spectator. I'll tell you some more of them as the season goes by.

Runner on first and less than two outs. Batter hits a ball to the second sacker. She tries to tag the runner going to second but the runner realizes she can't get past the fielder with the ball. The runner heads back to first base, being chased by the second sacker. The runner reaches first and is touching first when she gets tagged by the second sacker before the batter-runner touches first base. Right after being tagged (while touching first base and before the batter-runner touches first) the runner at one takes off for second base. The second sacker throws wildly into left-center field in an attempt to get the ball to the shortstop who is standing on two. Keep in mind that the second sacker never touched the bag at first. The runner heads for third and the batter-runner heads for second base. The centerfielder over throws third base and the runner scores while the batter-runner winds up at third base. You are the umpire and keep in mind there is lots of yelling and screaming going on during this crazy play.

Here is another play we actually teach and practice in Poynette. If you don't believe this one just ask umpires Rick Crawford and Jim Spangberg of Portage because we executed this play two years ago in the Portage tournament.

Runners on second and third and less than two outs. We have our "on contact" signal on. Both runners know what "on contact" means and signal back to me that they have the call. Batter hits a ground ball to the pitcher. The runners are off. The pitcher fields and throws to the catcher but our runner from third stops and gets in a rundown between three and home. Our runner from two goes one step from third and stops without touching the base. The runner from third forces several throws so our batter-runner heads for second base, where she rounds a step and watches what transpires. The rundown continues with our kid heading back for third base. She steps on third safely and our runner from two heads back for second which draws a throw to second. Our runner at third scores and our runner from second gets back to third safely on the throw to the plate. We score a run and wind up with runners on second and third.

Now, that play has also backfired for us when our kids failed to execute it correctly. A couple of years ago the same thing happened but the kid from second stuck too close to the bag at third and when the runner at third touched the bag safely the trail runner was too close to the play and got tagged out by the catcher. We did end up with runners at second and third but we didn't score the run like we did the other time.

Our general rule of thumb on our "on contact" play is that the runner at third has to stay in the rundown long enough to get the batter-runner to second base and she must try to be safe at home instead of third base. We give up the out to get runners to second and third like we had when the pitch was made. Our runner from second is instructed to get to third base and stand on it so she doesn't get tagged out. We haven't lost anything and we have forced our opponent to make some throws in that rundown.

Keep this in mind about rundowns. If you are the defensive team, the fewer throws you make the greater chance of getting the out. Our goal when we are the offensive team, is to get you to make at least three throws. Our chances of being safe get so much greater every time we get you to make three or more throws. I once read a master's paper while in college on rundowns in major league baseball. At that level, three throws increases a runner's chances of being safe by 50%. A fourth throw increases it to 75%. Even the above average high school girls' softball teams seldom handle four throws or more in a rundown without making a bad throw or dropping one.

How often do you practice rundowns. Do you practice making throws while running or do your kids stop to make the throw in a rundown? How far from the bags are they when they are making those throws? Do they open up "passing lanes" for themselves and their teammates to make safe throws? We didn't in our scrimmage on Saturday and we allowed a runner to score because our third sacker hit the runner in the back with the throw. We spent 45 minutes on Monday working on those things. Do your runners in rundowns look for somebody from the other team without the ball to make contact with in order to force an obstruction call? Do your players toss and get out way out of the play or do they continue to chase the runner even when they don't have the ball?

Some Possible Future Bulletin Situation Topics
Issuing a base on balls with a runner already at third base
Scouting and what we look for or chart
Umpire tendencies
picking pitches
decoding codes

Are there any topics youd' be interested in reading about? This medium can really be a great coaching clinic in itself and --- it's free!

Hey, you've been great - good luck in your next game -- even if Poynette is your next foe. We don't mind losing to well-coached teams.

Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin Volume 6 Number 9 for April 2, 2007

Play Ball!

Hello Again Everyone –

I was going to send out a bulletin last night but since it was April 1st I figured nobody would believe anything that was written in it for fear that I might end with April Fool! Actually I did start a fictitious bulletin and was going to end it with those two words but then I realized that some people might not read all the way to the end before reacting to some of the stupidity that would have been in the bulletin.

By the way I got word of another hyper-extended knee when a player slipped on a wet home plate the other day and another one that slipped, fell but survived without injury. Keep those reports coming in as they really interest more than just me. I'll start keeping a list of softball injuries for the state if people send me the stuff.

The play I wrote about the other night is covered in the case book on page 53 under the heading – Two Runners Occupying The Same Base. In the mens’ game I was umpiring that I told you about, my partner on the bases failed to call the runner out when tagged while touching first base. That really caused lots of confusion. The same thing can happen in a high school game though. The case book situation is 8.3.3 on page 53.

I have been posting scores as they come into my inbox. You can see those on the website under Week 1 and now Week 2 results. There are a lot of them there including teams that appear on our first (pre-season) rankings.

I have also posted the first Statewide Rankings. They are pre-season rankings and do not take into consideration any games played through March 31st. We’ll update them at the end of every week. If there is a team not ranked that you think should be or that needs our focus from the rankers, just e-mail with that information. Those rankings could change considerably between now and next week.

One team that won’t change, I’m sure, is Grantsburg in Division 3. The defending state champions opened with a pair of victories on Saturday including a nice victory over Pine City, Minnesota which was the only team to beat the Pirates in 2006. Molly Bjelland and Miranda Kammeyer. That pair of players are two of the state’s finest no matter what division of play you are considering. Kammeyer possesses fantastic power and is a great catcher. She’s a kid that some collegiate coaches ought to be drooling over. Bjelland is another in that same boat. They also have some other fine players and plenty of pitching to get to Madison and win it again. Beside Bjelland then have Jamie Lund, and kid sister Michelle Lund who can win in the circle. People at the state tournament know that to be a fact because Jamie Lund finished up the state title game against Lancaster and was the hardest throwing pitcher our radar guns had found the entire weekend.

Speaking of Lancaster, they are also off to a great start in 2007.

I have added many, many more team previews from across the state for your reading enjoyment. A special thanks to my great friend Tom Giachino of Luxemburg-Casco for putting me on to the great previews. Everything he has found and sent me is now posted on the previews page of the website. If your preview is not there, it’s nobody’s fault but your own.

That reminds me of another issue. The various newspapers across the state do pre-season outlooks but it takes coaches to send in their surveys. Get them in to those people before you complain about lack of coverage. If lack of coverage concerns you and you do send in your surveys, then you need to contact the sports department at the paper that is upsetting you.

Coaches who won state championships prior to the WFSCA purchasing championship rings are reminded that you can still order a ring for yourself through Bill Rudy of Jostens. Bill’s e-mail address is bill.rudy@jostens.com so get in touch with him. The cost of the ring is $250. You need to know your ring size, the color of the stone you’d like in it etc. Bill can help you out on that. The ring is silver lustrium. If you want it to be gold that costs you about twice as much.

Remember that I have Fastpitch Chronicle triple play certificates here. If your players complete a triple play and you’d like the certificate just e-mail the information which should include the players’ names, the date of the game and the opponent on that day. If you had triple plays last year and didn’t get certificates I will honor those as well. As a matter of fact you can go back as far as you want to and get certificates for those triple plays.

I looked at the WFSCA website today to see how many school names are still printed in black. That color means the head coach from that school is not a paid-up member of the WFSCA. The membership deadline is April 14th. If you haven’t paid by then you and your players are not eligible for any post-season or in-season awards from the WFSCA. If you fail to join and then win the state title, you won’t get a free state championship ring, you won’t get plaques or any awards and your players will not be eligible for all district or all state nominations or awards nor for the wfsca all star games.

We’re not scheduled to play this week due to spring break and lots of kids out of the state and country so I will be out and around watching/scouting other teams all week. If I saunter into your neck of the woods and you see me at your ball yard or the ball yard where your team is playing, say hello.

Another thing that would be good for the fans and readers would be a master schedule for all teams in the state. There are always people looking for good games to watch. Send me your schedule on a word document and I’ll try to put together a master schedule on The Fastpitch Chronicle website. I make no promises but if everyone would put their schedules on highschoolsports.net it would be easy for anyone to see when you are scheduled. But, I’m sure there are some coaches that would prefer not to have anyone know when and where they play. It’s that hiding thing again.

As I did the previews I was again troubled by the number of programs that have coaching turnover so often and by the number of first-year coaches. All of us need to be sure to get the word to those coaches that there is an association just for them, the coaches. It’s the WFSCA and we all need to urge everyone to join and then help pitch in to make the association one that people are eager to join.

That’s it for today. This one went out at 9 am this morning because I’m on spring break.
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin Volume 6, Number 10 for April 3, 2007
Portage's Katie Stilwell fans 20 in a 7-inning no-hitter over Sauk Prairie

Seven inning game and 20 strikeouts!

That’s keeping it Rising!

Hello Everyone – My good friend and protégé Katie Stilwell of Portage turned in a pretty impressive performance this afternoon in a game against Sauk Prairie. “Kitty” as we call her tossed a no-hitter and fanned 20 in a seven inning game. That’s hummin’ it folks, simply hummin’ it! She’s bound for Seton Hall next fall on a full athletic scholarship as well. That’s the same Katie Stilwell who pitched Portage to the 2005 Division 2 state title and tossed shutouts against both Rice Lake and New London to get the state title. After recuperating from an injury during the 2006 season, she’s back to her old form. We knew from our Wednesday night workouts in February that she had “it” back. On the last night she worked out with us, her dad had all he could do to stay on the bucket as “things” were really moving and shaking.

There have been some other great performances as well and if you have been reading every game summary that comes in to me and gets posted, you are well aware of them (like I am as I read and proof nearly every one of them). Here are a few other noteable performances so far this season.

Before I mention any of them, let me emphasize a couple of things. 1) I teach full-time and am the head softball coach at Poynette 2) I am a one-person operation with The Fastpitch Chronicle website 3) those two bits of information should help you realize that I need things sent to me in order to get them posted because I have absolutely no time to go looking for your scores and summaries. I copy and paste and then proof and edit as best I can with the little time I have to do so 4) If you want your players to get any kind of publicity on a statewide basis or you’d like rankers, conference reps and district reps to know about your kids when it comes time to select post-season players, then it would behoove you to heed my advice – and that is – send the stuff to me and be timely with it. I’ll post stuff late for you but keep in mind that people are not apt to go back a week or more in the past to look at your scores and I’m not going to post last week’s scores in this week’s results!

Ok – Here a few notable performances from the first 2+ weeks of action

Poynette beat Westfield on March 20th and it was the 400th win for the Poynette Coach
Portage’s Katie Stilwell tossed a no-hitter with 20 ks against Sauk Prairie and doubled as well
Stilwell has pitched two games and they are both shutouts (Baraboo and Sauk)
Racine Case’s Alissa Koch throws no hitter and fans 18 vs Mukwonago
Koch followed that up with 12 Ks in six innings against Arrowhead
Koch fanned 6 in three innings and belted a three-run homer in a win over Horlick
Lancaster’s Katie Schroeder had 13 ks in a win over Dodgeville then had 13 to beat Richland Ctr. on 3 hits
George (her last name) fanned 13 for Prairie du Chien in a win over Platteville
Deerfield’s Ashley Gulbranson tossed a two-hitter at Princeton
Cuba City and Galena, Illinois played a 15-inning game where both pitchers fanned 23 but no names were available as nobody sent in the score to me
Katie Sutter of Barneveld tossed a two-hitter with 17ks against Belmont
Shoreland Luth. Rochelle Willkomm, hurled a 5 inn. no-hitter with 10s in a win over Heritage Christian
McFarland’s Stephanie Schmikla tossed a one-hitter and fanned 10 in win over Belleville
Adams-Friendship pitcher Amanda Griese had a one-hitter vs Reedsburg
Rosholt’s Anna Zdroik had 13K's on a 1-Hitter over Bowler Oconto’s Natalie Ruechel tossed a five-inning no-hitter over Coleman
Jenny Franko was 3-for-3 for Kewaunee in a win over Michicot
Kewaunee beat Denmark on 4/2 and it was the first-ever win for that school over Denmark
De Soto senior Courtney Zeimet struck out eight batters and gave up one hit in five innings of work as the Pirates defeated Weston 15-1Pacelli’s Jordan Olds starts the season out by throwing a perfect game and had 2 RBI’s vs Wey-Fremont
Bayport’s Miranda Szcepanski threw a no-hitter and struck out six while Sam Johnson had a bases-loaded triple to highlight an eight-run third inning for the Pirates
Thomas More pitcher Katie Boyle had 12Ks in a no-hitter over Pewaukee
Madison Memorial’s Koykaar (no first name included) hit two homers and a triple in a twinbill vs Fondy
Miranda Kammeyer of Grantsburg launched a shot in excess of 260 feet in Grantsburg’s first game of 07
Lourdes- B. Wolff tossed a no-hitter at Randolph and fanned 10
Bonduel’s Ashley Berger threw a no hitter in five innings over Weyawega-Fremont
Pepin’s Molly McIntosh 12 k's and no-hitter over Colfax
Lyndsay Swoboda struck out 12 as Algoma no-hit host NEW Lutheran
Wittenberg-Birnawood’s Katie Betry had 14 strikeouts while going 2 for 3 at the plate over Shiocton

Ok – that’s just some of the stuff I was able to glean from the stuff on the website tonight. There’s more great stuff on there. From here on out, coaches and fans (and parents of course) should e-mail me notable performances for future bulletins.

Here are two crazy plays I witnessed today in a game I was watching. First play: Ball hit over rightfielder’s head at base of fence. Rightfielder raises her hands and base ump starts running out there to look. Base of fence was lower than home plate so nobody could tell if the ball was under the fence or not. Rightfielder reached down and grabs ball and throws it toward second base. Base ump moves to his right about four or five steps and tries to catch the throw but it bounces and rolls between his legs. Runner was about half way to third when that happened. She scored as the third base coach kept her running. It was ruled a home run but – if I had been the coach of the team in the field I would have asked the umpire this question – “OK, I know the rule but if you weren’t sure the ball was under the fence or not, why did you try to catch the throw? And if that’s not what you were trying to do, why did you move in front of our throw and get in the way?” The team in the field’s coach didn’t ask those questions and the run scored as if nothing strange had just happened!

Those of you who have been reading these bulletins over the years know that I go to ball yards just to see something I had never seen before. I had never seen that happen before.

Here’s the second one and it happened in the same game. Runner at third and no outs. Batter swings and misses and the catcher drops the ball. Runner heads for first and the catcher rifles a throw to the first sacker who is standing about five feet in front of first base and about 3 feet in fair territory. The runner at third was off on the throw to the plate so the first sacker rifles the ball to the plate immediately. The runner from third is called out (good call by the way). The batter-runner suddenly appears in front of me (I was right behind home plate) and she is heading for the bench. She disappears behind the fence. The plate umpire comes over by me and says, “Hi Bob, how are you today?” I said, “Hey I’m good but I’m confused. That kid at first never touched the base or tagged that batter runner and she headed for the dugout.” The base ump never called the batter runner out, and the plate ump never saw the play. Play just resumed and when the inning was over the plate ump went out and told the base ump what really happened on that play.

That happened just that way. So what can you learn about that play? First of all the first base coach really goofed up. That batter-runner should have wound up on second base at the least. The first base coach was busy watching the throw to the plate and not coaching the batter runner. The base ump should have acted like he knew what had just happened by running over to the bench area and calling the batter-runner out when she vacated the field but he didn’t. The base ump should have learned to keep an eye on his play and not sneak a peak to home plate where the plate ump had things under control. That’s how great amounts of confusion occur at a ball yard. I typed about confusion in the previous bulletin! By the way, the defensive team’s coaches had no clue as to what took place near first base either and got lucky when the batter/runner gave up and headed for the bench.

Hey, it’s really late. Have a great day. I’m going to Notre Dame on Wednesday if they aren’t rained out. Scores from Wednesday, if there are any, or late scores from today, will be posted on my return on Thursday or tomorrow night if we don’t go.

Here’s to you and as always
Keep your eyes peeled for strange happenings and always
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin Volume 6 Number 11 for April 5, 2007

Put me in coach, I’m ready today, look at me, I can play centerfield.

It was too cold to play centerfield anywhere in Wisconsin and honestly be able to say that you were having fun.

A few years ago we opened our season at Franklin Field in Madison against Madison Edgewood. It was 2002 to be exact. It was about 33 degrees and the wind was blowing right off Lake Monona that day. We played it though and the only time anyone really had any fun was in the bottom of the seventh when a Poynette kid, whom we had taught how to play fastpitch to begin with, beat us with a looping liner that hit the rightfield foul line and scored the winning run. She lived in Poynette but went to Edgewood High School. After that game, I decided to that we would never play another game when it was less than 42 degrees Fahrenheit with the wind blowing. Not if I could help it anyway.

Then, in 2005 we played in the Portage Optimist Club invitational against Kewaskum and Dodgeland. I didn’t even want to know what the temperature was that day but we played because it was an invitational with no make up date. I took tarps and we enclosed the dugouts we sat in with those tarps. I also took along two or three Coleman propane heaters. I didn’t allow my pitchers to bat that day even though they were two of best hitters. The risk of getting a hand full of bees on an extremely vibrating bat/ball collision would mean not being able to grip or have a feel for the ball when pitching. Instead those two would go to the dugout, get under a quilt and keep their hands in front of those Coleman heaters. Then go out and pitch like nobody’s business. On that day our senior pitcher tossed a no-hitter, fanned 15 or 16 and walked nobody. In the next game our junior pitcher tossed a perfect game with somewhere around 17 or 18 Ks.

I always liked pitching on cold days. I would try my darndest to get batters to swing at low, inside ones and hope they’d foul them off the handle and get a nest full of bees. Not too many people have the mind set to really give another pitch a real go after the bees have attacked them. Modern bats don’t do well in that cold weather either and coaches and umpires need to keep in mind that warming up bats in the dugout is illegal.

I looked on the WFSCA website today and discovered that my dues did make it to Jane Briehl in Spring Green. Poynette got switched from black to red so that’s a good thing. I found an awful lot of school names that are in the black yet. You have until the 14th of April to get your dues paid. Keep in mind that some coaches that belong are probably hoping that you forget or refuse to join. That way their kids have a greater chance of getting post-season recognition from the WFSCA. That’s the way it works. If you are not a member, your program can get no post season recognition. There is not other organization nor group of people who will honor kids from schools whose coach hasn’t joined the association.

That also reminds me that I wanted to be sure to inject some interest within conferences that do not have a conference rep or conferences that fail to send a rep to the all district meetings. It’s really hard to get the kids from conferences not represented the kind of recognition that many of they deserve. I try to get out and watch as many games as possible in our district so I have an idea of who the really top notch players are when I sit in the all-district selection committee meetings. Not many people do that though. Here are the links to the four divisions in the WIAA and the WFSCA membership pages. http://wfsca.org/pdf/06-07/sb.2007.d3.pdf
http://wfsca.org/pdf/06-07/sb.2007.d2.pdf
http://wfsca.org/pdf/06-07/sb.2007.d1.pdf
http://wfsca.org/pdf/06-07/sb.2007.d4.pdf

In keeping with WFSCA and all district selections, I was just on the wfsca.org website and did a little research. There are 10 conferences in the state without a conference rep on the all district committees. They are: Lakeland Central, Lakeland East, Lakeland West, Olympian, Trailways North, Trailways South, Six Rivers East, Milwaukee City and both divisions within that.

From what I was told, the WFSCA created a Northwest District in an attempt to reach more coaches and programs in that part of the state. The Lakeland conferences need to do some polling and get somebody on board. Don’t wait and have reps from other conferences try to represent the kids from your conference. Folks, I’ve been to enough all district meetings to know that it won’t work that way very often. Your conference needs a rep to be at those meetings.
Fastpitch Chronicle Certificates
I have certificates that are available free for kids that are involved in a triple play (the defensive players). I have also created certificates for kids who pitch 7-inning perfect games, 7-inning no-hitters, and kids who have unusually great offensive games like multiple automatic home runs, lots of total bases, or double-digit RBI etc. I’ll try to figure out how to get that certificate online and perhaps even printable on your own paper. That would eliminate my costs of postage etc. Hey, one of you computer whizzes, should help me out on this project.

Another project for you to help out on would be a game reporting form available on the website whereby coaches can fill it out and send it directly to the results pages of The Fastpitch Chronicle website. I know there are some experts out there among our coaches who know how to do those things. I coach softball and type, I’m not into writing computer programs. Interested in helping out? Give me a shout.

The Big Rivers vs Wisconsin Valley Challenge is this Saturday in Eau Claire, weather permitting. Wisconsin Rapids and SPASH are traveling to Eau Claire to take on Memorial and North (I think that’s right). Are there any other Saturday events in the state I should know about and publicize? Let me know.

It’s been great and so have you!
Have a greater day than you had today and as always
Keep things hopping and Rising!
Bob
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The Fastpitch Bulletin Volume 6 Number 12 for April 10, 2007

Hello Again Everyone

Jim Kvisto of Hurley sent me an e-mail updating me on things in his neck of the woods where they've had lots of snow lately and he figures it has out them back two to three weeks.

There's snow and plenty of it forecast for the southern third of the state as well.

There are plenty of scores posted for games this week, though. Take a look at the website and you'll see them. Here are some notable ones from the ones that have been submitted. Menasha beat Appleton North at Appleton North; SPASH beat Merrill, Winneconne nipped WLA; Mayville is now 5-0; Denmark 2, Southern Door 1; Sturgeon Bay 2, Luxemburg-Casco 1;Algoma 3, Oconto 2 all from the Packerland;

Another report of a kid slipping and falling hard on home plate with rubber/plastic cleats on -- the sixth such reported incident this year thus far. No serious injuries from those falls -- YET! Keep those reports coming in. I believe there are now more people that you think who realize what many of us realized a long time ago.

Sevastopol softball has a battle going on there. The community field there is a grass infield and they've been playing their games at a nearby diamond. They've been trying to get the community leaders to skin the infield so they can play there games in town. It's been an ongoing struggle. They've been keep me up to date on the process. There was a meeting tonight to address the situation. The kids on the team have been forced to fund raise in order to play their games on a skinned infield nearby but having to come up with that kind of cash every year will be tough. The rulebook doesn't state that the infield must be skinned, it states that the best way is to skin it.

My daughter and I are going to be working on The Fastpitch Chronicle website in the near future. We are going to be dressing it up a bit and making it a little more user friendly and cosmetically better. Gerri Hansen, former Marshall coach has invested in a great digital camera and has promised to forward some pictures she takes as she travels around the state watching games. If you have some digital pictures you'd like to submit once we get the site re-modeled that will be great. I'll let you know when we're ready to embark on that kind of stuff.

For the most part, readers like reading material. I published the world's largest fastpitch newspaper for 14 years. It was the largest fastpitch publication of any kind ever in the world. I had pictures but the readers just wanted to read as much as they could. Pictures, they said were nice but not if they took up the space that a great article could use.

I now have more than 1900 e-mail addresses on the mailing lists. There is a good chance that I will start using RSS in the near future. RSS (or Really Simple Syndication) feeds are free content feeds from Web sites, and would include fastpitchchronicle.com, that contain article headlines, summaries and links back to full-text articles on the web.

Benefits and reasons for using RSS
RSS is an easy way for you to be alerted when new content that interests you appears on your favorite websites. Instead of repeatedly visiting a particular web site to browse for new articles, RSS automatically tells you when something is posted online. Via a news reader, RSS automatically retrieves summaries of the latest content from the sites you are interested in similarly to the way your e-mail software regularly checks for new e-mail.

When we move that system -- I'll let you know and let you know what you have to do to take advantage of it.

We've had over one million visitors to The Fastpitch Chronicle since 2005. That's a lot of people and visits. We want to expand it even more though. Tell your friends, the players on your team, the other parents in the stands and anyone interested in the game. The website really does have a lot to offer.

I was looking at the WIAA tournament brackets and noticed that there are only 95 teams in Division 4 for 2007. That is a low number, the lowest of all the divisions. I'd be willing to be that there are some teams out there that are pretty good but are some of the very smallest in D-3 that would like to be in D-4. I see by reading the minutes of the Softball Coaches Advisory Committee minutes they suggested the WIAA even things out by dividing the number of bottom teams (D-3 and D-4) in half to even things out. I'm not sure how that moved along through the political process within the WIAA last fall. If you know, let me know so everyone then knows.

That's about it for tonight.

Actually, that is it so
as always
Keep it Rising
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin Volume 6 Number 13 for April 12, 2007

Say Hey Willie, Tell Ty Cobb and Joe Dimaggio -

Hello Again Everyone - I've posted many more team previews on that page of The Fastpitch Chronicle website so be sure to check all those out. I posted the Six Rivers East conference preview tonight.

Hey, Hey -- there were some games played today. Altoona and Gilman played and so did Thorp and Colby as did Park Falls and Prentice where Kesley Walasek of Park Falls tossed a five-inning perfect game with 13 strikeouts. The Fastpitch Chronicke pitching clinics staff have enjoyed working with Kelsey and the rest of the pitchers in that part of the state that attend the clinics we put on. And speaking of The Fastpitch Chronicle staff, Katie Stilwell of Portage will be highlighted in a State Journal preview in Friday's edition (I think that's when it will be). Katie, you see, is a pretty special kid to the rest of us who do the pitching clinics. She and her dad first showed up in my back yard at our training center when she was eight years old. She could light it up when she was eight and she's still lighting it up now. I once watched her strike out 22 kids in one game and the other pitcher on her team that summer fanned 21 in the second side of that doubleheader. Folks, that's lighting it up!

There are other fine pitchers in the state as well and that really makes me happy and proud. When we started this sport in this state, it was viewed as another sport for girls to take part in and meet Title IX requirements. The Pioneers kept plugging away and slowly we picked up interest and increased the level of competitiveness. We started summer programs and pitching clinics all over the place and we've taken a great game to a level of competitiveness that rivals all of our neighbors. And, we do it with a very small window of time for the high school season. Summer programs like that of The Danes, Bandits, Batgirls and more have also helped to take the competitive level to higher shelves. Everyone is responsible for the improvement and it's a tribute to each of you.

On Tuesday, in Poynette, we played Columbus. Before the game started I introduced one of the original Poynette High School softball players to our team. She's Jami Severson (Hanick) who played on our first-ever team in 1979. She and the others seniors on that team are the only Poynette softball players that I have not coached as I came on board in 1980. I umpired behind the plate during the home games that first year. Jami's daughter is a junior playing on the Columbus team. I always enjoy introducing current players to those that set the bar where it is. I've always felt that in life, it's impossible to understand where you are unless you understand how you got there. There's a whole lot of history behind all of our programs.

I'm hoping the sun comes out a bit and melts the snow in the south. If it doesn't I'm looking for fastpitch events in the north that I can travel to on Saturday. I need a good fastpitch fix this weekend to really get things flowing. So, if you are hosting a game, games or event this weekend, e-mail me that information and perhaps I'll show up at your venue and say hello.

I've gotten more reports of kids slipping and falling due to rubber/plastic cleats so keep those reports coming in.

I've also cleaned up the message boards that you can go to on The Fastpitch Chronicle website.

If you really thirst for fastpitch reading, be sure to check all the pages on the website. There is a new historical page at fastpitchronicle.com/historical.html with some stuff I have retyped from my old issues of The Fastpitch Chronicle I published for 14 years (1988-2002). I'll be adding more.

I've also added names and information to the coaches honor roll page so check that out and if it needs further updating just let me know.

Coaches who won state titles in years past can still order state championship rings from Bill Rudy of Jostens. They are $250. Contact Bill at bill.rudy@jostens.com. You will have to know your ring size.

Here are some highlights from the week: Onalaska snapped a 26-game conference losing streak with a win over Sparta the other day .... Williams Bay's Emily Deitz surrendered only 1 hit while striking out 11 and walking 0 in a win over Dodgeland while Dodgeland's Tieraney Plannasch recorded 13 stikeouts in taking the loss...... Big Foot's pitcher whose last name is Niven (no first name reported) tossed a one-hitter at Clinton and fanned 17 in the process ...... Medford's Jenny Kraemer tossed a five-inning no hitter with seven strikeouts against Lakeland ...... Mindy Pecher went 4 for 5 with two RBI and two runs scored as Athens rolled past Edgar in six innings...... Freedom's Jamie Schuh struck out 13 and allowed one hit in a five-inning victory over Waupaca and Schuh also had three hits ........ Appleton East's Beth Spoehr hit a home run that went over the 215-foot center-field fence at Neenah, that ignited the scoring for the Patriots adn she also struck out 13 and didn't allow a Neenah baserunner past second for the complete-game win. ..... Appleton West 3, Oshkosh West 2 (12 innings) ..... Kimberly's Claudia Harke beaned the first batter of the game, but after that didn't allow another baserunner for the seven-inning no-hitter...... Sturgeon Bay 5, Green Bay West 2 and Winning pitcher Stephanie Shefchik had a two-run single during a five-run fifth inning that paced the Clippers. West (0-2) hurt itself with seven errors ..... Altoona 4, McDonell 0 .....
D.C. Everest 2, Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln 1 ..... Rosholt's Anna Zdroik pitched a 1 hitter with 15 strike outs at Port Edwards and was 2x3 at the plate with 2 doubles and 2 RBI's. ..... Menasha pulled off an early season upset over 4th ranked Appleton North at North High School ....

Have a great weekend!
Keep it Rising
Bob--

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The Fastpitch Bulletin Volume 6 Number 14 -- Friday April 13, 2007

Who's on first? What's on second and I dunno is a third!

Hello Everyone - First things first. Who is playing games tomorrow (Saturday 4/1/4)? Where and what time? E-mail me that answer if you are playing. I need a fastpitch fix.

Here are some messages from a few of our readers.

From Craig Otto:
Holmen senior Emily Pierce has opened the season with three consecutive shutouts, a 4-0 win over Fall Creek, a 1-0, 8-inning win over Central and a 5-0 win over Tomah. Pierce has two 2-hitters and a 3-hitter, and has combined for 24 strikeouts and seven walks. They’re scheduled to play at a tournament in Wisconsin Dells Saturday.

Luther’s Jessica Norcross hit her program’s first out-of-the-park home run since their park was shortened to normal fastpitch dimensions in 2004 in a 12-2, 6-inning win over Melrose-Mindoro April 2. Luther has opened the season 3-0, including a 7-4 win at defending Coulee champion Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau March 29.

You guys must have gotten it worse down there. We only got about 2-3 inches of snow in Onalaska, which all melted today, as it was close to 50 degrees. I’d be surprised if everything scheduled for tomorrow around here isn’t played.

Bob,

I am the AD at Ashwaubenon. We have the 2nd Annual Ashwaubenon Spring Softball Classic coming up on April 27-28 (Friday and Saturday) at Pioneer Park in Ashwaubenon. The teams that are in this year's field: Appleton North and Kimberly will play a FVA game on Friday night for their first game of the tourney, Ashwaubenon will play Germantown, Milwaukee Pius will play Chippewa Falls, and Beaver Dam will play Waterford. The Friday games will start at 5pm. Saturday games will start at 11am and 1pm. The championship game will start at 1:30pm. Last year Chip Falls (2006 state runner-up) beat Appleton North (2005 state champions) for the championship. Ashwaubenon, the 2006 WIAA State Champions, wound up taking 3rd place.

Dave -- Mr. David Steavpack

Bob, I read your question regarding the division of teams between Div. 3 &4. The Softball Coaches Advisory took action last fall to allow for anequal split in the future. Since assignments had already been made for the
2007 tournament this will not take effect until 2008. The language is in place in this year's Season Regulations.

Marcy

Question 1 I have a question regarding a better taking signs. Earlierin the week we had two separate umpires tell me that the girls need to keepone foot in the batter's box, similar to the baseball rule. The one umpirestated that it was a new rule and was a point of emphasis at their meeting.I attended the rules interpretation meeting at the coaches clinic and havereviewed the rule and case book. The only thing I could find was the twentysecond rule.
Answer Rule 7-3-1 has not changed from previous years. This rulepertains to the time limit and restrictions on the batter. There is not arule which would prohibit a batter from stepping out of the batter's box. Baseball however does have a rule which requires "The batter to keep atl east one foot in the batter's box throughout time at bat." The umpire wascorrect that batter delays were covered in the recent Softball Meetings as a Point of Emphasis. The complete language may be reviewed on page 84 of the
NFHS Rule Book.

Question 2 Girls on Team X were using the under eye black marker that many players will use for blocking sun glare. Question is, can it be more than one line? Under just one eye? Wrapping around to the side and the top of the eye?
Answer There is not a rule restricting glare blocker. If you felt that the use was somehow unsportsmanlike you might apply Rule 3-6-13 although it would be more appropriate to discreetly speak to the coach.

Question 3 Player on first when the next batter swung (not third strike) and missed and the catcher missed the ball. All though it was a swing and miss, the sound of the ball coming off the catcher's glove sounded like a foul ball. The runner on first based advanced to second but then returned to first base on hearing fans say "foul ball" and was tagged out by the defensive team. We allowed the girls to go back to second base and continued play from there. Was this correct?
Answer Runner is out. It is the runner's responsibility to know what the umpire has called. If there is a question as to the call stay on base. Spectator interference, Rules 8-2-12 or 8-4-3k do not apply in this
instance. If the defensive team had called "foul ball" Rule 2-32; verbal interference could have been called.

Question 4 We cannot find the Easton Rebel SZ100B on the ASA approved bat list. Is is legal?
Answer Yes. The ASA has updated its legal bat list. The Easton Rebel SZ100B is now on the list.

Question 5 Out softball field is also the baseball field. We will be able to host WIAA tournament softball games?
Answer No. Please refer to the Softball Season Regulations, page 31; "Games may not be played on baseball diamonds."

Question 6 I'm just curious if there is a WIAA rule about canceling sporting events due to cold weather.
Answer The WIAA does not have temperature criteria to determine whether athletic contests should be held or not. Always contact the host school to determine the status of athletic events.

Question 7 Runners on second and third. A ground ball is hit to F5. The throw from third goes through F3's legs and comes to rest just inside dead ball territory. F3 picks up the ball, braces for the throw, and steps with one foot completely in dead ball territory. Please clarify the correct call.
Answer The ball was neither hit nor thrown into dead ball territory and became a dead ball only when the fielder, F3, stepped into dead ball territory. According to the Case Book, 8-4-3, sit. T, the award is two
bases but from the time the fielder stepped out of play (8-4-3i, Effect, page 66) not when it left the fielder's hand (8-4-3f, Effect, page 65). The step out-of-play and the throw may have been nearly simultaneous but the rule book does state there is a difference in timing.

So there are some good questions and answers for everyone thanks to Marcy at the WIAA.

Some other notes of note: From a reader in the Fox Valley Area - My understanding is that it was a misprint that Beth Spoehr hit that homerun for Appleton East. I believe that it was someone else on that team.

Dear Bob:

Sorry for the omission. The first name of the pitcher for Big Foot who threw in the Clinton game is Cameron (Niven). Clinton's pitcher was Megan Gander.
Sincerely,
Melodie O'Leary

Bob,
As you know, I've attended quite a few college softball games with you and by my self over the years. These kids are as good as it gets in Women's Softball. In the last week I've seen kids play with broken noses, stitches, ACL tears and all types of injuries. But I have not seen any injuries stemming from getting spiked with metal cleats. Let me tell you, these girls come into a base much harder than High School girls do. And guess what? I have not seen any plastic or rubber cleats on a college player yet. The money that coaches spend on these kids is so great, they don't want to risk injury from plastic cleats.
Just my .02
Brian Franson

It's Friday night and it is getting late -- Have a great weekend. Rankers, please get your picks in on Sunday during daylight hours so I can tally them.

Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin Volume 6 Number 15 for April 18, 2007

Mouthguards - slippery home plates - stitches - chipped teeth - and more

Hello Again Everyone!

Those of you who know me pretty well and those who have been getting the Fastpitch Bulletins (formerly called Nightly Bulletins) know that I have been involved in this game for a long, long time. I have been involved so long that I can remember when there was not a white 16' circle around the pitcher's plate. I can remember when all bats were wooden (my bat of choice back then was a Louisville Slugger Speedswing) and balls were white and were cork centered and some were made to be used during daylight hours, some were for night games and some were called Day/Nite balls. I can remember when mens' softball players wore pants with wide stripes down the legs and there were snaps at the bottom and baseball players scoffed at those guys (now baseball players walk and run on their pants that hang over the backs of their spikes). I can remember when crowds packed small town ball yards to watch the men play in those local leagues and packed ball yards on weekends to watch the local teams play local teams from other towns and the tournaments were filled with "Ringers" (hired guns to come in and pitch for the local club trying to win a 25 dollar trophy) and the tourney entry fees were about 25 bucks. I can remember when the Portage radio station broadcasted every game played in the Portage Mens' Fastpitch League. There were two games per night four nights per week. I can remember when one of those pitchers in Portage taunted the other teams by wearing a cap with a dollar sign on the front because everyone else called him "Dollar Bill" because of the money he was paid to provide his rise, drop and change to the team he played for. I can remember when fierce rivlaries existed between those local teams and even fiercer ones existed between those of neighboring towns.

I can also remember watching very excellent women's fastpitch games like those played by the Madison Cardinals and Shirley Martin's teams from the Milwaukee area. A couple of Poynette ladies played on the Cardinal team. One of those great female players last name is Stoltenberg, the same name as that of Wausaukee Head Coach Sue Stoltenberg. Sue's husband is a member of the same Poynette Stoltenberg family and a couple of years ago even brought her Ranger club to the Poynette Jamboree. They bunked and slept on the floor at our current varsity pitcher's house because Shirley Stoltenberg of Poynette is her great aunt. Isn't it interesting how those fastpitch playing genes get passed down from generation to generation?

I remember playing top notch men's fastpitch softball against guys like Head Coach at Grantsburg Don Bjelland, Steve Johnson of Grantsburg, Mike Murphy at Webster, Don Olson of Webster, with and against Al Lundberg of Pigeon Falls whose wife is the head coach at Osseo-Fairchild. I remember games against the Red Shed of Madison and on that team was Steve Schmikla, McFarland's Head Coach and one of my fellow 400 game winners. I remember playing in places like Custer, Luck, Milltown, Sharon, Clinton, Dawson Field in Janesville, Monterey Stadium in Janesville, Carson Park on both Gelien and Hobbs and over at that other little field west of Highway 12 but the name of the little one-diamond park escapes me tonight. There were great tournament games at the Kelly Ball Field at Schofield, games at Brantwood, games in Stitzer, games in Platteville, in Shullsburg, Middleton, Olbrich Park in Madison, Mount Hope, Brooklyn, McFarland, Oregon, Stoughton where Jerry Peterson toiled on the pitcher's plate. I remember huge crowds at tournaments in DeForest, Windsor, Morrisonville and games in Rhinelander where pickup trucks backed up to the outfield fence lined the field and there was a half barrel of beer in every one (and that's not an exaggeration either - just ask any Hodag). There were games at Suamico, Sunset Park in Kimberly and at however they spell that park's name in Kaukauana.

Yes, I've been around and seen plenty. I played in Pardeeville, Wyocena and they had a great men's tournament in Waupun that always started on Wednesday night instead of a Thursday and ended on Saturday night instead of Sunday but the people in Waupun will have to tell you the reason for that.

In all those travels across Wisconsin playing fastpitch, one common denominator always existed just as it still exists with high school girl's softball - great people!

A few new people to the Fastpitch Bulletin lists and to the game in high school in this state have recently sent me e-mails wondering what my background is in this game. Wednesday nights are slow nights at the Fastpitch Chronicle website desk so I thought I'd introduce myse