http://www.grandforksherald.co...t/article/id/121065/
I'm not sure how true it is that one of these pitchers was overheard saying, "that Wood guy from Texas? What a wimp!"
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A pitcher’s dream: Throwing a complete game and striking out 18 batters to lead your team to a postseason victory.
A hitter’s dream: With two outs in extra innings, hitting a two-run, walk-off home run.
In Warroad, Minn., on Saturday, the two dreams were one for Warroad High School senior Lars Anderson.
Anderson trudged through 13 innings on the mound, tossing an unthinkable 201 pitches against Thief River Falls. Generally, a pitch count is considered high at about 100 pitches.
Then, when his coach finally told the right-hander that he wouldn’t be pitching the 14th inning, Anderson blasted his second home run of the season in the bottom of the 13th against the defending section champion Prowlers for a 5-3 Warroad win.
“It was the most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball,” said Anderson, whose team advances to the Minnesota Section 8AA semifinals today against Detroit Lakes. “That home run was just icing on the cake. It was to left field, and as soon as I hit it I knew it was gone.”
Lars’ dad, Paul, couldn’t even celebrate.
“I didn’t even pump my fist,” Paul said. “I was just relieved. He really showed courage and determination.”
The most consecutive innings Lars Anderson had thrown previously were nine.
“I just told them a few innings before the 13th that I was feeling fine, so I kept going,” Anderson said. “It was do or die.”
Anderson’s heroics were necessary with Thief River Falls’ left-handed ace Cody Conners matching Anderson pitch for pitch.
Conners threw 11 innings, striking out 21 and racking up 204 pitches.
It was a pitcher’s duel to the extreme.
Lars Anderson was at his best, even at 200 pitches.
When he took the mound in the 13th inning, he struck out the first batter. After hitting the next hitter, Anderson struck out the next two. Of the last five batters he faced, Anderson struck out four.
“It was out of this world,” Paul Anderson said.
So how does an arm feel a couple of days after throwing 13 innings?
“Alright,” Anderson said. “I had some pretty good advice from one of the coaches to ice it for two hours.
“I haven’t thrown any yet. I have practice right now, though, and we’ll see how that goes.”
A hitter’s dream: With two outs in extra innings, hitting a two-run, walk-off home run.
In Warroad, Minn., on Saturday, the two dreams were one for Warroad High School senior Lars Anderson.
Anderson trudged through 13 innings on the mound, tossing an unthinkable 201 pitches against Thief River Falls. Generally, a pitch count is considered high at about 100 pitches.
Then, when his coach finally told the right-hander that he wouldn’t be pitching the 14th inning, Anderson blasted his second home run of the season in the bottom of the 13th against the defending section champion Prowlers for a 5-3 Warroad win.
“It was the most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball,” said Anderson, whose team advances to the Minnesota Section 8AA semifinals today against Detroit Lakes. “That home run was just icing on the cake. It was to left field, and as soon as I hit it I knew it was gone.”
Lars’ dad, Paul, couldn’t even celebrate.
“I didn’t even pump my fist,” Paul said. “I was just relieved. He really showed courage and determination.”
The most consecutive innings Lars Anderson had thrown previously were nine.
“I just told them a few innings before the 13th that I was feeling fine, so I kept going,” Anderson said. “It was do or die.”
Anderson’s heroics were necessary with Thief River Falls’ left-handed ace Cody Conners matching Anderson pitch for pitch.
Conners threw 11 innings, striking out 21 and racking up 204 pitches.
It was a pitcher’s duel to the extreme.
Lars Anderson was at his best, even at 200 pitches.
When he took the mound in the 13th inning, he struck out the first batter. After hitting the next hitter, Anderson struck out the next two. Of the last five batters he faced, Anderson struck out four.
“It was out of this world,” Paul Anderson said.
So how does an arm feel a couple of days after throwing 13 innings?
“Alright,” Anderson said. “I had some pretty good advice from one of the coaches to ice it for two hours.
“I haven’t thrown any yet. I have practice right now, though, and we’ll see how that goes.”
that's such a sweet story... 
Both coaches should be taken to task for allowing them to throw that many pitches...no matter how good they said they felt!!
" In the 5th inning of the semi finals against Detroit Lakes the Lakers scored 2 runs as Jim johnson hit a fly ball to left field with two men on. Lars Anderson, the hero from Monday's game after throwing 201 pitches in a 13 inning complete game, drifted back and made the catch. The runners were tagging so Lars went to throw the ball to the cutoff but his arm detached from his body and fell a few feet in front of him. By the time the centerfielder picked up his arm..er the ball.. both runners had scored. Lar's father Mr Anderson wasn't upset as he was proud of his son for showing "courage and determination out there". The game was delayed for 10 minutes till they were able to find enough ice to put on young Lar's arm to take to Dr andrews for reattachment."
" In the 5th inning of the semi finals against Detroit Lakes the Lakers scored 2 runs as Jim johnson hit a fly ball to left field with two men on. Lars Anderson, the hero from Monday's game after throwing 201 pitches in a 13 inning complete game, drifted back and made the catch. The runners were tagging so Lars went to throw the ball to the cutoff but his arm detached from his body and fell a few feet in front of him. By the time the centerfielder picked up his arm..er the ball.. both runners had scored. Lar's father Mr Anderson wasn't upset as he was proud of his son for showing "courage and determination out there". The game was delayed for 10 minutes till they were able to find enough ice to put on young Lar's arm to take to Dr andrews for reattachment."
This is obscene. Any coach who allows this to happen should be responsible for the surgery and rehab to follow. I have witnessed some questionable coaching decisions, but this takes the cake in stupidity - I'm uncertain as to who is lacking more gray matter -the coach or the parent that is "proud".
quote:Originally posted by ball4:
This is obscene. Any coach who allows this to happen should be responsible for the surgery and rehab to follow. I have witnessed some questionable coaching decisions, but this takes the cake in stupidity - I'm uncertain as to who is lacking more gray matter -the coach or the parent that is "proud".
You mean the parent that will have to.....comb his hair for him the next morning? Normally the expression would be something else that a pitcher can't do for himself after an especially taxing night on the hill, but I'll keep it family friendly around here
quote:Minnesota Section 8AA
What size school is 8AA? Is this small school baseball where they don't have much depth?
quote:What size school is 8AA? Is this small school baseball where they don't have much depth?
I googled "Minnesota AA schol size" and this is what popped up:
quote:Lets look at the numbers of enrollments of some AA schools:
Minneapolis Edison - 666
Minneapolis Roosevelt - 778
Braham - 227
Hayfield - 257
Kingsland - 258
The cutoff for AA is suppose to be from 221-564.
So, if a high school has 4 years of classes, each class would have between about 65 and 175 kids.
Infield08 - Thanks...I was confused by the '8' in '8AA' since we typically refer to schools here as 1A, 2A, etc...
I looked them up and Warrold just graduated about 80 seniors so they probably have about 300 students, which is fairly small.
My son plays 1A and the biggest issue is depth. Our pitchers generally pitched the entire game since we don't have enough players to have 'pitchers only' and 'JV callups' and 'closers'. I don't condone throwing 200+ pitches but I can understand not wanting to go too deep into the pitching staff if the guy on the mound is throwing well since your pitching staff probably isn't too deep.
And, of course, with extra innings you're hoping that each inning is actually the last one but you're also afraid that it might go on forever and you need to save whatever you have...
I looked them up and Warrold just graduated about 80 seniors so they probably have about 300 students, which is fairly small.
My son plays 1A and the biggest issue is depth. Our pitchers generally pitched the entire game since we don't have enough players to have 'pitchers only' and 'JV callups' and 'closers'. I don't condone throwing 200+ pitches but I can understand not wanting to go too deep into the pitching staff if the guy on the mound is throwing well since your pitching staff probably isn't too deep.
And, of course, with extra innings you're hoping that each inning is actually the last one but you're also afraid that it might go on forever and you need to save whatever you have...
quote:“It was the most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball,” said Anderson, whose team advances to the Minnesota Section 8AA semifinals today against Detroit Lakes. “That home run was just icing on the cake. It was to left field, and as soon as I hit it I knew it was gone.”
This is what baseball is about. Having fun. Throw away those dopey clickers and just let them play.
Limiting pitch counts ruin arms in the long haul based on all the young arms getting Tommy John and most players don't go beyond high school anyway.
Let'em have some fun.
They play in section 8 and are 2A as far as enrollment hence 8AA
Bob
Very interesting article
Very interesting article
.
"that Wood guy from Texas? What a wimp!"
Hey, hey, hey...easy there!
"that Wood guy from Texas? What a wimp!"
Hey, hey, hey...easy there!