LPeers,
FWIW.....Last weekend my son's team played Navy in Annapolis. I walked away very impressed with the entire Navy program. It is a big field with artificial turf everywhere except home plate. My impression is they recruit speed to cover that large field, and they only had a few big boppers in the middle of the batting lineup. Their guys can handle a bat (hit and runs), and they play a lot of small ball. Extremely well coached and disciplined as you might expect. Their players had very high baseball IQs. I felt we had more overall talent, but they were extremely scrappy and resilient. They made us beat them.
The stadium is cozy for fans, and there is an indoor batting cage/pitching area for the Navy players. Their pitchers were strike throwers, and didn't give us many "freebies to first". There was no radar gun, and their starters threw a variety of pitches. Each starter went deep into the games between 85-100 pitches thrown.. My best guess was mid to high 80s for starters, and couple relievers may have touched 90. They threw smart pitches for the situation. Their parents & fans were very nice. I walked away with a very positive impression of the program, coaches and players. They were always jawing from the dugout whether they were ahead or behind. If those players are the leaders of tomorrow, I'm feeling pretty good.
