Live Game Lessons: Executing After Mound Visits

Sophomore Fall Classic

So far, all of the live game lessons we've done have come from MLB games. I think it's important to analyze the best in the world, but it's also important to make sure we cover some youth/high school level games as well as that is most of your competition at this point.

This week I was down at the Sophomore Fall Classic in Arizona with a CCB group. We were pretty short staffed on arms, so from a wins and losses standpoint it wasn't a great week; we went 1-3. However, 3 of the 4 games were close games and players that attended got plenty of learning experiences. The one I want to highlight came after a mound visit. One of our players in Extra Hacks came off the field and said "that one deserves a write up." Michael Archer, here you go 😃.

Scenario

Score: Us 7, Them 5

Inning: Top 5 (ended up being a 6 inning game)

Runners/Outs: 1st and 2nd, 2 outs

At this point in the game, we have an inexperienced pitcher on the mound. He's a good athlete, but his pitching experience is limited. Throughout the game we hadn't done a great job of holding runners, so there was a chance they would try and double steal. In this situation, it's normally not a great time to steal 3rd with two outs, but because the tying run is on 1st, getting him to 2nd is huge because it would put the tying run in scoring position. The last note I have on this to set up the scenario is their 3rd base coach was a pretty young guy (probably still in college), which I think made him a little more vulnerable to being set up.

The Mound Visit

Generally, I try and save my mound visits for situational plays like 1st and 3rd's or bunt coverages, just so we can make sure everyone is on the same page. There are other times where you need to actually talk to the pitcher about a mechanical adjustment or just give him a break, but it's always nice to have one in your pocket to draw up a play.

In this scenario, I thought they would be aggressive on the bases trying to get that trail side runner into scoring position with two outs, but I thought we would need to bait them into it. Given how much they were trying to run, I thought the young coach would take the bait. Here was what was discussed in that short mound visit:

1. We're going to run an inside move on the second pitch. I don't care if the count ends up being 0-1 or 1-0.
2. Pitcher needs to go high leg (not slide step) to the plate on the 1st pitch.
3. Middle infielders need to play way back and not hold the runner to act as if we don't care if they're going to run.
4. Don't give any signs from the middle infield (for number of looks or to put on a play) so they don't think we're paying attention at all.
5. Shortstop needs to break to the bag as soon as our pitcher lifts his knee on the inside move in case the player knows he's dead to rights and tries to just sprint back to the bag.

Note - Visit the inside move link if you don't know what that is.

Sure enough, we get to a 1-0 count, our pitcher does an inside move and the runner at 2nd just takes off for 3rd. We tag him out in a rundown and the inning is over. Our players did an EXCELLENT job of running everything how it was drawn up. Especially for having a position player pitching.

Lessons

That ended up being an awesome lesson for our players in learning to feel out the game. We talk about it all the time, my ultimate goal for players is for them to become coaches on the field. If you're a middle infielder or even a catcher that's a timeout and sequence that you can put on yourself, but you need to be paying attention to all the factors in the game in order to execute it.

I also thought it was a great lesson in just the execution bit. There was a lot of information to be processed there in 30 seconds. If you start trying to process the game like a quarterback, the game will slow down immensely. Our guys did a great job of executing their own bit on the play to get us out of the inning.

It set up this game ending play by another Extra Hacker, Mabu Reyes.

WHAT A PLAY! Just for the context, there are runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs. The tying run is on 2nd. If this ball goes into centerfield the game is tied. He not only keeps it in the infield, but fields in cleanly, and then makes a PERFECT throw to end the game.