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| SOFTBALL LINKS |
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Suicide Sqeeze Is Painful
by Dave
Monday, October 05, 2009
The second most painful event in fastpitch softball happerns when you give up the go-ahead run on a suicide squeeze executed flawlessly by your opponent.
Your going along in a tied game, perhaps nothin-nothin, and the other team gets a girl on second. Maybe you are in ITB. There are no outs. You have two strikes on the hitter and you get your pitcher to waste something which might fool the batter into striking out, putting you in a great position to get through the inning without giving up a run. Let's see - a dropball short of the plate! That should do it! But the ball bounds away from the catcher and the runner at second moves to third uncontested.
Now you have no outs a 1-2 count and a runner on third. Your pitcher strikes out the batter, making you feel just a little bit better. You just need to get one more quick out, preferably with an infield fly or a hard grounder to your now pulled-in infield. Then you are confident that your team will get the final out and you'll be the one threatening to score.
It wouldn't be fair for your team to lose this game. This is the first runner they have had at third. You've had girls there all day. But you have failed to put across a run. It just wouldn't be fair for you to lose.
Everything is moving in slow motion now. Just as your pitcher comes around with her arm to the release point, the batter squares and lays down an average to poor bunt. You're sure your kids can hold the runner and make that play without giving up a run. For a millisecond, you are happy. But then you realize that the runner from third broke with the release and is coming full guns. Your pulled in third baseman snags the ball quickly and seems to know instintively that she must come home with it. She makes a decent throw. Your catcher makes a clean play and tags quickly. But the runner is already underneath her and you fix your gaze on the plate ump. It looks for a moment as if he is going to make the out call but he doesn't. Instead, he moves both arms and hands and does the unthinkable. SAFE!!
Like I said, that is the second most painful event in fastpitch softball. The single most painful event happens when it is your runner on third in the bottom of the last and you fail to pull off the squeeze.
You've got a runner on third for the first time this game. You got her there by giving up the first out of the inning on a sacrifice bunt. It just so happens that the baserunner is the quickest, fastest kid on the team who also is to be a terrific baserunner. She gets off the bag well, runs like a cheetah in pursuit and has slid under too many tags to count.
Their pitcher is GOOD! Only two kids have gotten hits this game, those came several innings apart, and not very many of your kids have so much as put the ball into play. You can't count on the fates to allow the current hitter to break out and get a hit or drive one deep enough to get the runner in. She hasn't hit well all day and looked very bad in her previous at-bat when she struck out swinging at a ball two feet outside the zone. This pitcher seems to have the girl's number.
So you think perhaps you might be able to call a squeeze except that this hitter is not that great of a bunter. Actually, she doesn't care very much for bunting. Neither do her parents who have watched way too much high school, college and professional baseball. They think bunting is for kids who can't hit. Their kid can hit! If you so much as ask this kid to bunt EVER, you are setting yourself up for an hours long discussion with the mother since the father will not deign to even speak to you for weeks after you ask his kid to bunt. But you'd really, really like to call a squeeze play right now.
You give the sign and the girl scrunches up her nose, calls time-out and jogs towards you. Oh great! Nobody can figure out what you are up to! You've got the element of surprise going for you ... NOT!
You ask her, what she wants. She whispers, "you want me to bunt? Now?" You say, "yes. You gotta get this one down. Do it and we win the game." She trots back to the box as the opposing coach instructs, "watch the bunt. Hold her at third but get the out at first. You have plenty of time." (This batter is not a fast runner.)
The pitcher goes into her windmill and your batter breaks her hands squares about a half second too early and then bunts at the pitch as your baserunner commits suicide and blazes towards home. The batter whiffs by a good six inches and the catcher tags your runner out. Two down, 0-1 count, nobody on. The batter takes strike two, swings and misses at another riseball two feet over her hands, and you go on to lose the game. The batter and her parents are actually a little PO'd at you for putting her in an 0-1 hole from which she was pretty much forced to strike out wqhen they thought maybe she would go yard and win the game.
That's pretty darn painful!!!!
Sqeezes often end like this. That's why a lot of teams don't attempt them. But if you want to win ITB games against really tough pitchers, that's often your best option.
Everybody ought to work on squeezes. Every player who steps onto a softball field ought to be able to bunt. But the reality is many girls cannot put one down into play at will.
We work on bunting all the time. Very often I hear one, two or more girls complain under their breath that "I hate bunting." I have coached teams where more than one girl has, I believe, been told by her parents or taken the position on her own behalf that if I am called on to bunt, I will simply miss the bunt and then get a chance to hit away with just one strike.
As a coach, it is very frustrating to encounter girls with this attitude. We tell them that if you cannot bunt, you do not belong playing softball. If you want to play money baseball, that is played on another field and you are welcome to go there.
Still, even with extensive bunt practice, with everyone fully understanding that an at-bat in which you are asked to bunt and don't pull it off is a failed at-bat, girls still often fail top put one down in play. There are a few kids who always get it down. But those girls never seem to be up with a fast runner on third in the tight games. It's always the "big hitters" in the midst of a slump.
If it isn't the big hitters, it is the girls who can bunt but only in drag situations for basehits. The trouble with those girls is they struggle to make plain vanilla sacrifice bunts. They get bunts down and get on base about 25% of the time but the usual sequence involves missing the ball completely the other times. You can't count on them to get a sac down. You can't count on them in a squeeze situation.
I think I have set the stage properly to discuss an alternative strategy to the suicide squeeze, conventional sac "bunt" which requires that the batter A) absolutely make contact with the ball, B) absolutely not pop it up into the air, and C) hopefully get it down in fair territory. What I'm talking about involves not splitting the hands in a conventional bunting manner. What's important is contact with the ball. What's important is not popping it up. The rest depends more on the baserunner than on the quality of the "bunt."
I have observed many teams which utilize what I refer to as the "two-strike swing" approach in which the girls do not pull back to a full load and, thereafter, do not take a full swing at the ball. Instead, they place the bat into the zone and pull back about three quarters to full, take a quick chop at the ball, and generally make contact. This is utilized anytime the batter is down to her final strike but becomes very important when there is a runner on base and a grounder is needed to move her over. I've watched many girls at high levels use this to great advantage. But that is not exactly the technique I want to use in my squeeze scenario.
What I want you to teach your batters to use when they are called upon to execute squeezes is a "pepper" swing in which they merely put out a check swing and tap the ball into play the way they would when playing "pepper." You have your team play pepper, don't you? You should!
If you don't know what pepper is, listen up. You place three or more girls about 20 feet from a batter, give 'em a ball and say, "play pepper for a few minutes!" basically, the three fielders toss the ball underhand to the batter and she taps it back to them. The player who picks up the ball tosses it again and the batter taps it to hopefully another fielder. It is a great exercise to awaken fielders' reflexes. It is a great exercise to have batters practice their hand-eye coordination, not to mention bat control skills. It is a great exercise to have fielders work on their underhand tosses. And now, you know, it is great to work on suicide squeeze "bunting."
Basically, when playing pepper, the batter keeps the bat near the strike zone and then reaches to tap the ball into play towards the fielders. It is a lot like bunting exceopt for the technique with the bat. It is not a conventional bunt. It is a check swing. And most girls given very little practice can make contact with nearly every "pitch" tossed to them.
Playing pepper is not enough of an experience to teach girls to get suicide squeeze bunts down. You n eed high speed, live action "batting" practice for that. Turn the pitching machine up as high as it can go and have girls repeatedly tap balls into play. While you are doing that, have your pitchers warm up. Then have them throw live-pitched tapping practice.
Tell your pitcher to deliberately make it hard for the batters to make contact with the ball. If you get to game situations with runners on third and the other teams suspects you may try a squeeze, you can bet the oppposing pitcher will waste one high or outside on the first pitch. You want your pitchers throwing this practice to do the same. They can mix in some strikes, throw their movement pitches, etc. But they must sometimes waste some pitches since that provuides the most effective suicide squeeze "bunt" tapping practice.
I was watching a game on TV when i first saw this technique employed. I cannot remember which game it was or which teams were involved. All I can tell you is that the game was at a reasonably high level - that should be obvious since it was televised. The batter easily tapped the ball into play. It was not really a "good bunt." The ball was hit a little too hard to call it that. But, do you know what? It was a very effective technique. The batter had absolutely no trouble making contact against an otherwise tough pitcher. The baserunner from third had no trouble making it home in a not very close play at the plate despite the infielder making a clean play and good throw. I believe that, if you practice this technique, your percentage of successful suicide plays will increase dramatically. I hope none of our competitors are reading this!
Suicide squeezes are always painful. That is never a question. They are always painful for one of the parties involved. Which one do you want to be, the inflictor or sufferor?Labels: batting practice, Bunt, Offense, practice
 
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