Pitching progress

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series looking at pitch count regulations in Indiana and Ohio.



There were little signs of fatigue. At least if there were, Levi Long played it off as if he still had gas in the tank.

His 151st pitch, in the top of the ninth inning on April 16, 2015, proved otherwise. The Jay County High School sophomore left a fastball up in the zone, and Wapahani Raider junior Zack Thompson crushed it for a three-run home run to break a 4-4 tie.

The Raiders went on to win 9-4.

Under new IHSAA pitching regulations, Long would have reached his daily limit of 120 pitches one inning earlier. The game-deciding matchup between him and Thompson wouldn’t have happened.

Instead, Jay County coach Lea Selvey allowed Long to pitch the ninth inning in a tie ball game against the defending Class 2A state champions.



Mixed minds

The new regulations have gotten mixed reviews on both sides of the state line.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” said FRHS coach Jerry Kaup. “I think it is something we’re all going to have to get used to.”

But the new regulations create a different challenge: managing a pitching staff.

In recent years, the Indians had a solid one-two punch when it came to pitching. In 2015, Jackson Hobbs was the ace, and Cole Wendel was No. 2. A year later, Hobbs retained his position with Nick Thwaits complementing him after sitting out part of the season because of a transfer rule.

This season, Thwaits leads a Tribe pitching staff that doesn’t have as much experience as past seasons, and it’s put Kaup in a bind in trying to find the right guy to put on the mound.

“We’ve had some games here where we’ve kind of gotten handcuffed by that,” he said. “We just simply couldn’t play a couple of young guys that I would have liked to have played.

“I think it cost us once or twice.”

It’s a challenge the Patriots have faced too.

“Us (having a small roster) we don’t have much pitchers,” said JCHS sophomore Wyatt Geesaman. “That hurts us there. The big schools like Carmel that has four (pitcher-specific players) and five guys that can pitch on the side, that doesn’t affect them at all because they have depth.

“When we’re hurt, when we’re down one guy, that really affects how we have to attack things.”



State-line showdowns

What happens when schools play teams in different states with regulations different from their own?

Since the daily pitch limit in Indiana is 120 and in Ohio it is 125, if Jay County or South Adams plays in Ohio — or visa versa — how many pitches do they get?

“If we were playing in Indiana, our pitchers would be permitted to pitch 125,” Snodgrass said. “That is the problem with state adoptions, to a degree. I don’t like the fact it is different.”

Each team is obligated to follow the regulations of its home state. But there are caveats, as the South Adams Starfires found out first hand a few weeks ago.

South Adams went to Fort Recovery for a doubleheader April 15.

Grant Besser, a SAHS sophomore, started the first game. He threw 85 pitches in the 6-2 loss.

The Starfires pulled out a 14-12, nine-inning victory in game two. During the close game, SAHS coach Brad Buckingham told Besser to warm up, thinking he had at least 35 pitches remaining to throw.

But OHSAA rule says that if a pitcher throws 31 or more pitches in the first game of a doubleheader, he is not permitted to pitch in game two. Therefore Buckingham wasn’t allowed to use the “remaining” 35 pitches Besser would have had if the game were played in Indiana.



Pitches perfect

On that evening two years ago, Long threw 151 pitches, 31 more than the maximum under the new rule.

Prior to its implementation this spring, the IHSAA and OHSAA permitted a pitcher to throw no more than 10 innings in a three-day span, regardless of the number of pitches.

In the last two years, there were 21 instances of players at Jay County and Fort Recovery throwing 100 or more pitches. Thirteen of them were by Patriot pitchers. Out of those 21, five of them — all but one by Patriots — would have exceeded the current daily pitch limit.

During that time, no one threw more pitches during an outing than Long, who now plays for the Norwell Knights. The next four highest totals were 134, 129, 128 and 126 pitches. Fort Recovery’s Hunter Boughman threw 128 pitchers last year. Jake Myers, a current JCHS senior, is responsible for the other three.

Shane White, a 1992 Jay County graduate who got drafted by the Chicago Cubs and now works in sports medicine, believes having a limit on pitches is a good thing. But it’s not the cure to curb arm injuries.

The quality, rather than quantity, of the pitches is what matters most.

“In that 120 pitches, he could be throwing efficiently,” said White, noting the average number of pitches per inning is 15. “Are we developing kids to throw strikes?

“The less pitches I can throw an inning the better off I’m going to be.”