All aces: Pitching dominates South Sound softball with 70-mph heat, rise balls

Last May, Rogers freshman Sierra Murray led the South Sound with 252 strikeouts — a breakout season for the right-handed ace and eventual TNT All-Area Player of the Year. When the Rams reached the 4A state softball tournament, she pitched every inning of every game all the way to the championship, eventually falling to Oregon signee Maddie Milhorn and the Skyview Storm.

>All in all, Murray won 17 games with a 1.35 earned run average last year. She’s doing more of the same as a sophomore, striking out 150 in her first 14 appearances this spring.

>It’s a level of production you simply don’t see in high school baseball. Softball is often more pitcher-friendly and hitter-friendly than its baseball counterpart, using larger equipment, smaller fields, and the dominant arms eligible to pitch nearly every night.

>As the postseason nears, The News Tribune breaks down the basics and what makes softball unique.

ALL ACES: TOP PITCHERS PREVAILThe 4A state softball championship between No. 1 Skyview and No. 10 Rogers last May showcased two of the best pitchers west of the Cascades. It wasn’t a coincidence.

>When state championships return next month, expect another pair of aces like Milhorn and Murray in the circle.

>It’s no secret that top-end pitching can drag lineups through hitting slumps and lead the charge toward championships, something particularly prevalent in softball. Programs fortunate enough to possess aces like Milhorn and Murray deploy them most nights, unlike baseball’s traditional, five-man starting rotation.

>The big difference: Softball pitchers aren’t subjected to a pitch-count restriction by most governing bodies, such as the WIAA. In Washington, a player cannot compete in more than 20 games per regular season, but it’s typical for one arm to throw both legs of a doubleheader or weekend tournament.

>How do we know when we’re watching someone great? Strikeouts are the first, obvious indicator. Graham-Kapowsin sophomore Brooklyn Pettit, the South Sound’s strikeout leader (152) through six weeks of the spring season, is a strong example: The Eagles took third in the 4A state bracket with a freshman Pettit in the circle last year. She’s already thrown no-hitters this spring, to boot, powering an undefeated season in the South Puget Sound League (12-0, 15-1).

THE BASICSPuyallup freshman Jaycee Kemp is one of the harder-throwing pitchers in the South Sound. Her fastball reached 72 miles per hour in preseason training, considered her putaway pitch that most players can’t touch.

>In high school baseball, a pitcher’s fastball typically hovers around 80-82 miles per hour. The mound measures 60 feet, six inches from home plate, as it does in the major leagues — but that number shrinks to 43 feet in softball, giving hitters less time to react to fastballs like Kemp’s.

>How else do softball and baseball differ? The nine positions and defensive layout are mostly similar, though on a smaller field. A softball diamond is 60 feet from base-to-base (90 feet in baseball) with outfield walls closer to home, often in the 200-foot range.

>Baseballs are nine inches in circumference. Softballs are roughly one ounce heavier and considerably larger, at 12 inches. Both sports use metal bats at the high school and college levels, though a softball bat is traditionally longer, lighter, and skinnier.

>The obvious contrast: Softballs are thrown underhand, and have been since the sport’s inception in the 1880s. Baseball began allowing overhand pitching that decade, while softball’s original underhand rule stood the test of time.

>So what’s similar? High school softball and baseball programs play seven-inning games, less than the traditional nine innings played professionally. If a high school team leads by 10 or more runs after five innings, the game is called via mercy rule. Both sports feature similar small-ball strategies, too, like bunting, base-stealing, and defensive shifts.

RISE BALL? DROP BALL?Baseball features the traditional, well-known pitch types most recognize from memory — fastballs, sliders, and changeups, to name a few. Professionals often put their own twist on the classics, creating hybrid “splinkers” or “slurves.”

>Softball pitchers utilize those same fastballs and changeups, sure. But their ‘secondary’ off-speed offerings vary greatly, from the popular curveball to a sinking drop ball.

>Graham-Kapowsin’s Pettit throws an electric “rise ball,” which breaks sharply upward and fools those expecting a heater. Rogers’ Murray dealt a nasty changeup throughout the Rams’ state-tournament run last spring, mixing it with a traditional fastball and rise ball of her own.

>Puyallup’s Kemp continues to dominate 4A SPSL with what’s primarily been a two-pitch mix, overpowering opponents with a 70-mph fastball and baffling others with a nasty curve. Monday afternoon, the 6-foot-1 right-hander threw her first-career no-hitter in a 6-0 win over rival Sumner. She struck out 14, enough to grab the South Sound’s season lead (165) from Pettit.

>“(Jaycee’s) a predominantly fastball, curveball (pitcher), and her changeup can be pretty good when it’s biting like it should be,” Puyallup head coach Alec Elliott told The News Tribune last week. “But I think developing whether it’s a screwball, whether it’s a rise ball, whether it’s a drop ball… would be huge for her as the time goes.

>“And that’s the ultimate compliment. You’re this good, and you can still develop your arsenal to be even better, is absolutely wild to think.”

>Just how valuable is a softball ace, after all? Pettit (Graham-Kapowsin), Murray (Rogers), and Kemp (Puyallup) sit atop the 4A SPSL standings through six weeks. That much isn’t a coincidence, either.

TOP HITTERS KEEP MASHINGBecause of the smaller fields and bigger softballs, the area’s best hitters can post batting averages over .600, though it’s the blend of consistent contact and power that carry players to the college level.

>Take Franklin Pierce’s Kiley Sledge, for instance. The junior shortstop and Utah commit is batting .737 (14-for-19) with seven doubles and two home runs this spring, a premier all-around player in the South Sound. She’ll be playing Big 12 softball two years from now.

>Timberline’s Nevaeh Haagen, committed to Central Arkansas, leads the area with eight home runs in 42 at-bats. G-K’s Pettit has belted seven home runs, in addition to her 166 strikeouts in the circle.