MONDAY, APRIL 19, 2010
KLMNO
HIGH SCHOOLS
S
D3
Making a pitch to be the best from a young age
G. Counsel freshman Finucane is latest to prove talent trumps youth in softball
by Alan Goldenbach
Enough college softball recruiters have already informally offered scholarships to Good Counsel’s freshman pitcher that her father said she could choose a school to- day if she felt so inclined. Casual observers marvel how a girl who just turned 15 years old can fire pitches at 65 mph from just 40 feet from home plate. Finucane is the latest area freshman pitcher to dominate from her debut. While pitchers of Finucane’s ilk certainly are not common, historically they have asserted themselves immediately, unlike standouts in other sports such as basketball, soccer or la- crosse, who typically emerge later as they get taller or stronger. And while cross-country runners’ times tend to decline as their bod- ies develop as upperclassmen, the top softball pitchers show a dis- tinctive ability to sustain their dominance throughout their high school careers. “The ones that have dominated early have just continued on through their careers,” said Hun- tingtown’s Mike Johnson, who has coached for 23 seasons and won seven state titles. “That’s a unique factor that our sport has over all others.” Why elite softball pitchers seem to be immune to both literal and figurative growing pains is a mystery to several high school, college and private softball coach- es. Many had never even noticed the trend, yet they later acknowl- edged, after considering the bril- liant high school careers of such local players as Northern’s Kelly Shipman (1992-95), O’Connell’s Lesley Palmer (1997-2000), Broad Run’s Christy Anch (1999-2002), Park View’s Karie Morrison (2000-03), Calvert’s Megan Elliott (2003-06) and Severna Park’s Kai- la Jenkins (2003-06), among oth- ers, that, even over time, oppo- nents could not solve top pitchers. “I see [Finucane] in that same
T
mold,” said longtime O’Connell Coach Tommy Orndorff, whose team has scored one of only two runs Finucane has allowed this season in a 1-0, nine-inning victo- ry on March 19 and gets another shot at her Monday. “She has those same qualities.” The fact that perhaps no posi- tion in all of high school sports can dictate success (or failure) more than a softball pitcher makes it even more confounding that a freshman could master it. “There’s no position in sports,” said Orndorff, who also runs the Shamrocks travel team program, for which Finucane played last summer on its 14-and-under team, “that demands more of a person than a pitcher in fast-pitch softball.” As youth sports opportunities
have multiplied over the past two decades — particularly for girls — players take the field at an in- creasingly younger age. While softball is no different in that re- spect from other team sports such as basketball, soccer or lacrosse, softball pitchers have an advan- tage over players at every other position in any other team sport: They’re directly involved in every single play. Further, unlike baseball, for which rest is paramount both for the pitcher’s health and devel- opment, softball pitchers often throw multiple games in a single day because the underhand wind- mill delivery is the natural motion of the shoulder. “It comes back to the idea of the windmill pitch and that it’s less damaging to the arm,” said Su- zanne Konz, a clinical assistant professor and athletic trainer at Oklahoma State, who is studying the workloads of college pitchers. “The belief is that they can sus- tain longer loads.”
Finucane recalled a tourna- ment last summer where her team played 10 games in a week- end and she pitched seven of
he plaudits come from vir- tually everyone who has seen Tori Finucane pitch.
them. “It gives you a lot of chances to work on your mistakes,” she said. “If a riseball didn’t spin the right way, I can realize that I’ve got to get under the ball more, and then I have more chances to try it.” Even though basketball or soc-
cer players may compete in as many games as a softball player, the pitcher is afforded a maxi- mum amount of time to learn in game situations. “They don’t have to rest like baseball,” said Jack Crandell, who has coached softball pitchers in Maryland for more than 40 years, “and that’s how they can learn a lot. At 9 years old, they’re pitching 50 games a year.” Often the most difficult hurdle is a player’s physical develop- ment. Research of cross-country runners shows that once teenage girls reach puberty and begin de- veloping hips, their running strides are impacted. They strug- gle to adjust to their new bodies and their times suffer. Pitching “doesn’t involve run-
ning, so it doesn’t throw off their balance,” said Lynn Pitonzo, who coached Northeast to a Maryland- record eight championships and now chairs the state tournament. Rich Crowell, Finucane’s pitch- ing coach, who has also worked with dozens of area pitchers over the past decade, including Elliott, said the fact that girls generally reach puberty earlier than boys is an advantage for pitchers. “Colleges are going to 12- and
14-year-old tournaments,” Cro- well said. “Why? Well, women do mature [physically] quicker than men. I’ve seen girls who develop so quickly and that’s why they are so good so early. They know what they have, and it doesn’t surprise them.”
Crowell’s daughter, Clarisa, was
All-Met Player of the Year both in 1997 and ’98 at McDonough, be- fore pitching at Virginia Tech. She is now the pitching coach at Okla- homa State, which is ranked ninth in the country. Clarisa Crowell said an out- standing softball pitcher’s ability can be identified at an early age. Seldom, she said, can a pitcher pick up more than 5 or 6 mph on her fastball during her high school career. A player isn’t going to go from throwing 55 mph to 65 over those four years. “You’ve got kids like Megan El-
liott [now a senior at Arizona State] who’s had it since she was 10,” Clarisa Crowell said. “She probably could have come out in high school at 12 and been just as good.
“What you see early is what you’re going to get.”
Ed Steele has touted plenty of pitching prodigies in his 19 years coaching Broad Run, which has won four Virginia AA titles. What he particularly recalled about Anch’s freshman year in 1999, was not the wealth of travel-ball ex- perience she had, nor her tall, slim build.
JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST JAMES A. PARCELL FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Good Counsel’s Tori Finucane has allowed just two runs thus far during her spectacular freshman season.
Steele, instead, remembered
watching the rest of his players before a game “singing songs and going crazy in the dugout,” while Anch and catcher Jessie Olownia, a fellow freshman, went over pitch signals and game-planning. “That’s what was most impres-
sive,” Steele said. “Pitchers really rely on cunning, so their maturity level helps, and the best ones are very mature for their age.” Finucane’s coach, who has nev- er had a player anywhere close to her caliber, said that that is appar- ent in her pitcher. “That’s what makes this kid so
special,” Good Counsel Coach Paula Obal said. “For a kid this age, she’s so focused, and so deter- mined beyond her years. Her de- meanor, her confidence is quiet and, ‘I just want to get the job done.’ ”
goldenbacha@washpost.com
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Pitcher Kaila Jenkins, seen here in 2003, was a three-time All-Met at Severna Park and won two Anne Arundel titles.
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O’Connell pitcher Lesley Palmer, here in 1997, was named to the All-Met team four times during her high school career.
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Park View’s Karie Morrison, here in 2000, was the All-Met Player of the Year in 2003, it was her third All-Met selection.
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