NO--HITTERS OR NO HITTING : While Pitchers Appeear to Have the Upper Hand in High School Softball, Some Coaches Say Batters Are Catching Up

It’s a good bet that an error will determine the outcome of one of today’s Southern Section softball playoff games.

In fact, it would hardly be surprising if a miscue decided all of the games.

Errors become most crucial in the playoffs because hits are so scarce. One misplay could end a season.

But it’s not just a case of playoff pressure that’s causing the hit totals to dwindle. Instead, it is the continuation of a season-long trend: High school softball today is a sport dominated by pitchers.

To wit:

Samantha Ford of Hart has 18 no-hitters in four years. De Dow of Canoga Park has two no-hitters this year and so many one-hitters that her coach has lost count. Beth Silverman of El Camino Real, just a freshman, has five no-hitters. Debbie Dickmann of Newbury Park has two no-hitters, including a perfect game. Christy Alves of Burroughs, also a freshman, threw three consecutive no-hitters at one point this season. Roxana Rafik of Viewpoint has six no-hitters.

And that’s just a partial list.

Said Thousand Oaks Coach Greg Ropes: “Pitching is the name of the game.”

Hart High Coach Dennis Ford: “I think that it is up to the hitters to do something to catch up.”

Ostensibly, the playoffs should be the offensive players’ showcase. After 25 games or so, batters should be reaching their peak. Surely, a double up the alley or a long drive off the wall determines the winner. Doesn’t it?

Not too often.

“Every game that we have lost in the playoffs the last three years has been because of an error,” Hart High softball Coach Dennis Ford said.

In 1982, the Indians lost in the 2-A final to Bellflower, 4-1, when the right fielder and second baseman collided on a fly ball. The ball dropped and three unearned runs scored.

Hart lost to Righetti in the second round of the 1983 playoffs when a throwing error allowed the tying run to score. Righetti won in 15 innings, 3-2.

Last year, Hart was undefeated until it lost to Newbury Park, 1-0, in the second round when, with two outs, Newbury Park scored a 12th-inning run after a single went through an outfielder’s legs.

Most softball coaches agree that there is a gap between pitchers and hitters. Their explanations vary from the number of pitching coaches around to the weight of the bat.

“The pitchers are throwing 200 to 300 times a day, working on ways to get a batter out,” said Dennis Ford, who also serves as a pitching instructor. “There probably aren’t many batters around who swing the bat that many times a day. If you get 25 (at-bats) in practice, you’re fortunate.”

Said Jeff Tumin, the coach at Sylmar: “The really good pitchers have had private help since they were real young. So by the time they get to high school, they can be overpowering.”

Gary Fausett, an assistant coach at Hart and a batting instructor, said there are “probably 40 or 50 pitching coaches to every one batting coach.”

Alemany Coach Dudley Rooney believes he knows why: “Parents see an opportunity for a scholarship in pitching first, ahead of hitting,” he said.

Ford concurred: “That’s everybody’s first priority. They (colleges) want to get a pitcher and a catcher, then start looking for a hitter.” Ford’s daughter, Samantha, will attend UCLA on a softball scholarship next year.

The increase in pitching coaches seems to coincide with the number of dominating pitchers.

“I think there are more of them,” said Ford, who has coached at Hart for seven years. “Back (in 1978) there were basically just a few dominating pitchers and hardly any in the Valley. That’s a big change in the Valley. There are more good pitchers.”

Burroughs Coach Jerry Libman has also seen the changes.

“As I was driving home the other day I was thinking that when I first started (11 years ago), you could get 10 runs in a game and 12 to 15 hits. It seems like those days are gone unless you play weak teams.”

Libman cites the change over the years in the pitcher’s delivery. Today’s windmill style has become more popular than the traditional rocker motion.

“They were not nearly as fast with the rocker,” Libman said. “The hitter had the advantage. But now, you’re hard-pressed to get two or three hits off a good pitcher.”

Samantha Ford feels she can get every batter out. “That’s because I have a certain drive that I can turn on in certain situations (to retire a batter),” she said.

Another problem for batters is that pitchers have improved the movement on their tosses.

“For our players the problem is not so much the speed,” Alemany’s Rooney said, “as the movement on the ball. You can time a fast pitcher if she just throws straight. But with the rise and the drop and others, you have to adjust.”

Still, the speed of the pitch is a big factor.

“If you get up to 55 or 56 m.p.h.,” Dennis Ford said, “the batter is in a heck of a lot of trouble.” Ford explained that a 57-m.p.h. fastball in softball is equivalent to a 90-m.p.h. pitch in baseball. The softball mound is 40 feet from the plate in high school; the baseball mound is 60 feet, 6 inches away.

Sylmar’s Tumin said some of the girls use bats that are too heavy.

“They have to learn to get the bat out,” he said. “If you make contact with someone throwing hard, it’ll go somewhere.”

But it might just go right into the gloves of the fielders. And most coaches agree that fielding has improved tremendously over the years.

Said Libman: “Overall defense has improved, especially in the infield. The outfield is almost a lost position because there are no balls hit out there.”

Canoga Park Coach Joey Nakasone has yet another theory behind the lack of hitting: “One of our problems is that we have no one to throw batting practice,” he said. “We hit off the pitching machines but they just don’t supply the assortment of pitches a real pitcher has. So it’s difficult to practice.”

Nakasone allows his best pitcher, De Dow, to throw batting practice occasionally, just not regularly. “I’d rather not have her throw hard every day,” he said.

Ford doesn’t let his daughter throw too much either. “In order for them to hit the ball, to be successful,” Ford said, “Sam would have to flatten the pitch out. For my money, that creates bad habits.”

Another problem presents itself in batting practice when a flame-thrower continually buzzes pitches past the hitters.

Said Sylmar’s Tumin, whose top pitcher is Diana Lopez: “It’s hard to keep the batters motivated when they’re going against Diana. That’s because they’re not getting any hits.”

Not everyone agrees that softball is just a pitchers’ paradise.

Newbury Park Coach Richard Intlekofer thinks the change in softball is that hitters are getting better.

“It seems the last year or two, the hitters are catching up,” he said.

Intlekofer said that when the overpowering pitchers first appeared several years ago, his hitters just wanted to get on base.

“Now it seems to me that we’re doing a better job of making contact against the real tough pitchers.”

He added: “I don’t think you have as many dominant pitchers as people would believe.”

Newbury Park, which faces Westminster today in the 4-A quarterfinals, has a team batting average of .300.

The Panthers’ top hitter is Karen Westphal, who hit .430 in the regular season and has seven hits in nine at-bats in the playoffs.

“I should be able to hit the ball every time up,” Westphal said.

She did allow that the first couple times up against a pitcher of Samantha Ford’s caliber are difficult. “But I should be able to hit it solid the third time up,” she said.

Westphal credits much of her success to Fausett, who has been a hitting instructor for 17 seasons.

Fausett, whose daughter Laurie hit .519 for Hart in league play, quickly comes to the defense of the offense.

When asked whether pitchers dominate hitters, he replied, “Not your good ballplayers on the field. Not the ones that work at it. Pitchers don’t dominate those hitters.”

Fausett has a batting cage set up in the back yard of his Valenica house. He instructs about 150 girls a month on the art of hitting.

With the good hitters, Fausett said, “The pitcher wins once, the hitter wins the next time.”

The reputation of a Samantha Ford can lead to intimidation.

“Take a young high school kid who is just out there because the coach needed to fill a roster spot,” Fausett said. “They’re scared, scared to death. They’re scooting back in the box. You can see it in their faces.”

Samantha Ford agreed that she can intimidate hitters.

“With some you can see it in their faces,” she said. “With others you can see it in the way they swing the bat, or the way they don’t swing the bat, or that they swing at anything.”

The timid hitters, Ford said, are the ones who often get hits.

“They get hits because I tend to let up,” she said. “The tougher hitters are more of a challenge because I bear down.”

Newbury Park’s Westphal isn’t so sure about the intimidation factor. She said that batters might be fazed by a pitcher’s record, but after facing a pitcher once, the hitters gain confidence.

As Kennedy Coach Diana Laborde said, “Softball players think they can hit anybody.”

In the opening round of the Southern Section 4-A playoffs, there were 13 shutouts. The three other teams that lost scored one run each.

Laura Baustista of Banning in Wilmington set a national record earlier this season by throwing seven straight no-hitters.

In two playoff games this year, Samantha Ford has allowed three hits. Roxana Rafix of Viewpoint has allowed one hit.

In Thousand Oaks’ season-opener with Hart, the Lancers were no-hit and lost, 2-0. Ford got 19 of the 21 outs on strikeouts. Only one Thousand Oaks batter was able to put the ball into play.

Are all the no-hitters and non-hitters hurting the game?

“I’ll say no,” Ropes of Thousand Oaks said. “One of the major things is that when you see a game it lasts an hour, an hour and a half. From that standpoint, it’s still very exciting, very enjoyable. There are always things happening.”

Even if the action isn’t always in the batter’s box.