pitching well into later innings

I see that the pitch count estimate is too high...more like 45 to 50.

As far as the endurance part goes, your son should be in great cardio shape. Starting Pitchers conditioning should contain more running than any other position player on the field. If your kid is in great cardio shape the next question I would have is about routine and repetition of mechanics. When a player gets tired the first thing to go can be mechanics, and if your player doesn't have the muscle memory and/or sound enough mechanics this could cause problems with control. Also the 3rd and 4th inning is when the lineup starts to come around again and if your son can't change speeds and locate this time around it makes for a long day and/or quick exit.

With the mention of these few things I will end with the idea that all or none of these could apply to your player. You should look into a quality instructor/coach in your area that can evaluate the situation and start working towards a solution.

Being in good cardio shape refers to how conditioned your heart and vascular system is. The heart is not the limiting factor in pitchers. Cardio or aerobic exercise is more about going for a long time at low intensity with no recovery time. Pitching late into games is about recovering from powerful bursts of energy. If you want to be better at recovering from powerful bursts of energy, practice doing it by running sprints and doing plyometric exercises. By doing this, you are doing an explosive movement, then trying to recover in a specified rest time to do another explosive movement. Much more like pitching.

Another thing to consider is that all the running in the world won't get someone into the later innings. He has to throw to get his arm into shape. If someone's arm is in good shape, then the running will help him but nothing can help someone whose arm just isn't in shape to throw a full game.

Mike Griffin
No Excuses Baseball

The advice given above is great. Another thing to consider is the mental approach that your son is taking. I have seen countless times, a pitcher rolling through an opponent early only to hit a wall of ineffective pitching around the 4th and 5th innings when opponents are seeing him for a 2nd and 3rd time. Many times this is not due to fatigue but rather the fact that the pitcher becomes too comfortable and does not focus with each pitch. Often the first pitch is not a strike and then the pitcher falls behind and tries to concentrate and ends-up having to groove one. I would remind your son to concentrate on each pitch like it is a tie game in the seventh and make every pitch a good one. This may help on the mental side of things. Best of luck.

Thanks for the advice. It is all helpful.

I'd like to illuminate one point made above. Mike G makes the distinction between cardio vascular endurance and muscular endurance. He says correctly that muscular fatigue is much more of an issue for pitchers then Aerobic endurance. However twenty4karatarm's point that pitchers should be in great cardio shape is still important because it is the cardio system that allows a pitcher to recover quickly between pitches, batters and innings from the explosive movement of pitching. I agree with Mike G. that most of a pitcher's running should be short to medium interval work to specifically training the body for power but in addition you may want to include a least one weekly longer Aerobic run to help build a base and flush the system of waste products built up from more intense bouts of exercise.

Great advice regarding arm conditioning and care. You almost want to treat it as if you were training it alone. Warm up, strength training, flexibility, cool down, rest.

i throw 4 pitches. FB,CH, CB, SL...this summer my pitching coach advised me to try to work through the order once with just fastball and change. if you can do that, then you pull out your breaking pitches the next time through and that makes it difficult. i didnt follow this advice full out, but i tried to limit what i showed hitters first time through...something to think about, it may or may not wrk based on who you are.