Great Bend Post Sports
As the 2012 movie title said, many who step into the batter’s box have “Trouble with the Curve.” For a pair of KVGB “Sports Day” hosts, it was something else: trouble with the changeup. Voice of the Panthers Aaron Clark and Mike Courson recently faced off against Lady Panther varsity softball pitchers Paige Thexton, Braelyn Turner, and Chayla Prendergast. Results were mixed.
“Most of the time, we work behind the scenes covering the athletes,” Courson said. “It’s always fun to step out and see exactly what the opposition is seeing. Big thanks to Coach Carrie Minton and the team for letting us interrupt a practice for some entertainment purposes.”
Courson once faced off against Lady Panther All-State pitcher Hunter Middleton but that was a few fast-twitch muscles ago. Wednesday, he stepped into the box first against Turner, who leads the team with 61.2 innings pitched and 55 strikeouts this season. Her best pitch, a curve, went into the dirt, er, the brown turf at Barton Community College for ball one. Courson hit a weak pop up to third base on the next - one that would easily be fielded by any varsity third baseman, especially Lady Panther Denver Ringo.
“We weren’t expected to make contact,” Courson said. “So, yeah, it was a weak fly ball in the infield. But I feel like it put the team on notice that I was there to hit.”
Thexton next stepped into the circle against Courson, again opening with a ball low. He took her next pitch up the middle. Normally, the Fort Hays State-bound Thexton can be found at shortstop. In her absence, the ball snuck by for a base hit.
“No pitcher wants to give up a base hit,” Courson said. “But the ball cleanly reached the outfield. Had I chosen to run, I would have safely made it to first. I feel like I beat the shift, but I think Paige would have thrown me out.”
Then it was Prendergast’s turn. The freshman has tossed 56.2 innings and struck out 51 in her first varsity season. After a ball, she fooled Courson with a changeup that left the rest of the team giggling.
“I was throwing fastballs outside,” Prendergast said. “On the second time, I started with a changeup on the outside. I really like it when my changeup works. It's funny.”
All three pitchers enjoy the snap of a fastball in the glove for a strikeout. But there’s also a certain satisfaction of completely fooling a batter.
“It's so much fun watching them swing so early or try to pull it back so they don't swing out,” Thexton said. “Even when it's in the dirt, that's when it's the funniest because it's not even a strike and they're swinging at it.”
Deciding which pitch to throw comes down to a variety of factors, including where the batter is standing in the box.
“If they're hugging the plate really far, then you want to go outside because it's harder for them to reach it, or you can also jam them inside,” said Prendergast. “If they're also hugging you, that's when you do your curve. You wouldn't really do a screw because it would probably hit them.”
The team allowed Courson to take a couple cuts off Prendergast. He hit one slicing bloop down the right field line. While he watched to see it if stayed fair, freshman Camdyn Post hustled from her outfield spot to snag the ball. Post recently gunned down a runner at home plate from a spot farther out. Before Courson pondered if he could have run it out for a single, Minton confirmed: you would have been out.
The changeup still in his mind, Courson got around late to the one ball right field and made his final contact on a groundout to sophomore Alyssa McCauley, who has varsity innings in the circle this year, but fielded the last hit for an easy force out at first.
Then it was Clark’s turn to fit a helmet over his long locks. By his own admission, the 6-foot-7 play-by-play man last saw a pitch during machine-pitch baseball in the second grade. Accordingly, he went down swinging against Turner.
The Lady Panther pitchers rarely see players as tall as Clark, but they do see opponents of various heights and in various stances, presenting a different strike zone for each batter.
“You just have to adjust to their strike zone,” Turner said. “Sometimes they're a little bit taller or shorter. You just have to adjust your release point.”
Thexton, a standout shortstop who has thrown just 7.2 innings this season with 10 strikeouts and a 0.913 ERA, then returned to the circle. She caught Clark looking on a ball right down the middle, much to the delight of catcher Kamryn Koelsch, doubling as an umpire, then fooled Clark with a changeup.
“Their ability to effortlessly swap between pitches, they don't give anything away with their wind up or stance in the circle,” he said. “It all looks the same until you're reaching outside or swinging in the dirt.”
Thexton ended up striking out Clark, but she said just because a batter looks foolish on a changeup does not mean going right back to the off-speed pitch.
“If I don't strike them out on the changeup, I do like to come back with some speed to hopefully keep them off balance more,” she said. “Even with the next batter, I normally won't start with off-speed. I'll keep coming with what I've got.”
Finally, Clark squared off against Prendergast. He made his first contact on a foul ball that found Koelsch’s glove – a strike. He grounded out the next pitch to McCauley at first.
“It's almost the opposite of what I thought,” he said. “They use fast balls to kind of lull you to sleep and get you used to a certain tempo and speed of pitch, and then throw that changeup. It makes it hard to get comfortable or in any sort of rhythm. I think all three of the gals I faced got me swinging hard on a changeup I didn't come close to touching.”
As intimidating as it was, Clark, who played football at Emporia State University, was pleased at the opportunity to see the Lady Panthers in action – from behind the facemask of a batting helmet.
“It was a ton of fun,” he said. “I get to see the gals play on the diamond all the time and it was awesome getting to see some of their pitches firsthand. Huge thank you to Coach Minton for letting us come out and interrupt practice as well as to all the players who only laughed at us a little bit.”
McCauley did not pitch in practice but has 7.2 innings in the circle this year for the Lady Panthers. She has three strikeouts and a 2.74 ERA.