quote:
Originally posted by thesportsattorney:
Certainly pitching was "a" factor, but I am not sure it would have made a difference who Hickory threw last night.
I'll concede that a sloppy defense in the Hickory / Great Bridge game contributed to Great Bridge's loss, but I DO believe it would have made a difference who Hickory threw last night. I believe it was the efficiency of the winning pitchers in the two games I saw which made a great difference. In the Hickory / Great Bridge game, Blake threw approximately 3.1 pitches per batter, pitching the complete game. The only run he allowed was in the 7th inning. In that same game, Connor Jones threw approximately 3.7 pitches per batter. That may not seem like much, but one could feel the difference without even having to count the pitches. And with Great Bridge's defense forcing Jones to face more batters, the difference in pitch count added up fast.
Based upon Go Dawgs' numbers, through 6 innings, Brown threw 3.4 pitches per batter. Through 5 innings, he threw 3.1 pitches per batter. On the other hand, Hickory's starting pitcher against Nansemond River threw 5 pitches per batter. Now, I do realize that if every batter got a hit on the first pitch he received, the number of pitches per batter would be very low. But that wasn't the case for either Blake (in the Hickory / Great Bridge game) or Brown (in the Hickory / NR game.) Brown faced 15 batters in the first 5 innings of his game, Blake faced 17 in the first 5 innings of his game. And they faced so few because many of the strikes they threw were good pitches, not meat ball pitches. (Brown's first 15 or so pitches of the game were strikes.)
The efficiency of the pitchers allows them to stay in the game longer, avoids the pitcher having to throw the pitch down the middle to avoid a walk and avoids having to go to a less accurate bull pen.
This is a long-winded way of saying that I would love to see Blake pitch for Hickory against Brown for Nansemond River. Hickory might not win the game, but it should be a much closer contest and a really fun game to watch. (BTW, Blake, I believe, was the winning pitcher over Nansemond River in a 2011 season game.)