softball’s toughest pitch

By

ADAM DAIGLE

Whitney Roark has a sore right wrist, a patience that’s wearing thin and maybe a dwindling sense of being in the correct place.

But none of that will matter until she gets her 50 to 60 pitches in before going home.

The junior-to-be from Monterey High School is the latest in a line of student pitchers learning to throw the riseball this summer with Ferriday Gators coach Rut Horne.

It’s the signature pitch of all tough fast-pitch softball pitchers, the one pitch that separates ordinary from impressive and pretty good to just plain tough dominant.

But it takes time to learn &045; lots and lots of time.

&uot;The riseball has got me frustrated,&uot; said Roark, playing up a league this summer and one of the team’s four pitchers. &uot;He said it can take a few years. It took Miranda (Doughty) and Christy (Corley) two years to get it. I’m used to weeks and not years. It’s the toughest pitch to learn and the toughest pitch to hit, too.&uot;

There is no arguing the riseball is the toughest pitch to learn, but it can also reap the biggest rewards. Horne has worked with all his pitchers on throwing it for strikes, and all have found better results once it became a regular pitch.

The pitch does just that &045; with the proper backspin from the pitcher, it rises on a batter. It’s the pitch Team USA star Jenny Finch used to whiff St. Louis Cardinals hitting machine Albert Pujols during a charity softball game.

With three riseballs, she made the All-Star feel like he had Chico’s Bail Bonds on the back of his jersey.

&uot;That’s a two-year pitch, depending on how hard you work at it,&uot; Horne said. &uot;It’s the toughest pitch to learn. It’s hard to do and hard to have backspin on it. You ought to get behind (Doughty) when they throw. I’d hate to be a batter. I’d hate to be an umpire.&uot;

The Gators will go with their four pitchers &045; Doughty, Corley, Erin Hedrick and Roark &045; when they compete in the Dixie Debs district tournament at Jonesville. The Gators will open at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against Winnsboro.

The teacher

Horne is the man aspiring pitchers and softball players come to see in the Miss-Lou. He has taught most of the area’s top players on how to throw the riser, curve and drop and has coached the Gators in past summers.

But as far as the riseball, his connection goes way back with that. A regular in the old Natchez Men’s Softball League years ago, Horne learned the pitch from a man named Bob Betz.

He picked it up from Betz and has believed in it ever since.

&uot;Bob came to Natchez to play twice a week,&uot; he said. &uot;They called him, ‘Superchicken’ &045; six feet tall and about 130 pounds. He was a phenomenal pitcher. He still pitches in a men’s league, and he’s 71 or 72.&uot;

What Betz could do &045; and later Horne and the players who came through &045; is put a backspin on the ball at the point of release. The key to throwing the riseball is to change your customary under-hand delivery to where the ball has top spin.

The more top spin you have on the ball, the more chance it has of rising on a batter in the box.

&uot;It’s a tough pitch to learn because it’s thrown with pure backspin,&uot; Horne said. &uot;To be able to throw the ball forward with backspin, it’s not a normal throw. Most pitches you throw underhand have top spin. The natural tendency of a fastball is to go down because of the top spin.&uot;

It’s like learning to throw all over again, and that’s what takes pitchers so long to get the pitch down. Horne starts with the grip (fingers split apart on a seam), teaches the delivery and just keeps stressing the importance of working on release.

So much so he advises them to toss a ball in the air using the release whenever and wherever humanly possible.

&uot;It’s like a two-year, every-single-day pitch,&uot; said Doughty, now pitching at ULM. &uot;But once you get it good, it’s real good. You’ve got to work at it every day. Every time I’d watch TV at night I’d sit there on the couch and throw it. Now everything moves the right way, and it goes.&uot;

Hedrick, the standout pitcher at Huntington, followed behind Doughty in learning the pitch and has excelled the last two seasons on the mound for the Lady Hounds. Corley, the hard-throwing right-hander at Vidalia, was the next to pick up the pitch and get it down pat.

Horne’s current pupil is Roark, the diminutive hard-throwing righty who has the teacher smiling.

&uot;Christy probably learned it quicker than anybody, but she probably worked harder than anybody,&uot; Horne said. &uot;She worked religiously at it during the fall. Whitney has yet to learn the riseball, but she’s doing a real good job on her fastball that breaks down on a right-handed batter. This time next year, she may be able to throw (a riser) or some part of it.&uot;

What the four pitchers are learning is what many hitters are finding out the hard way. If thrown consistently for strikes, you’re looking at either strikeouts or flyouts and some quick innings.

&uot;I throw my offspeed &045; curve and rise &045; and it makes you a better pitcher,&uot; Corley said. &uot;It keeps batters off balance. They never know what to expect. If you throw a fastball, they’ll be ready. If you throw a riseball, they’ll swing under it. If you throw it right and they do hit, it’s a pop-up and an easy out.&uot;

Success story

The students have come and gone, but Doughty may be Horne’s biggest success story. Once the right-hander’s confidence in the pitch grew during her senior season with the Lady Vikings, the more she went with it.

The more she went with it, the more head coach Gary Paul Parnham couldn’t pull her off the mound. The Lady Vikings rode Doughty’s arm to their first state championship in school history in 2003, and the riseball helped pay her tuition and earn a spot on the roster at ULM.

&uot;It’s just my pitch, I guess,&uot; Doughty said. &uot;It’s what I get all my strikeouts on. If they don’t swing at it, I can throw it for a strike. It’s just a good pitch. Working on it for two years paid off.&uot;

Doughty earned All-Metro Player of the Year award that year in 2003, and this spring she pitched in nine innings in seven appearances with the Lady Indians. But she was one of 10 freshman on a team with just 17 players and no seniors.

Having learned the riseball, she is already ahead of the curve.

&uot;Miranda probably learned the quickest and probably has the best of them all,&uot; Horne said. &uot;It really moves. For her, it was not a two-year deal. We practiced all summer, and one day when she was 14 or 15 she walked out and said, ‘Mr. Rut, I’ve got it.’ It’s been working ever since.

&uot;When Miranda pitches in a game, we wouldn’t throw five fastballs because she has such good control of her breaking pitches. She can throw left, right, up or down.&uot;

Doughty was one of the few pitchers in the high school ranks to throw a riser and one of the few teams have faced this summer. Horne said the number of pitchers this summer throwing a riseball have been few and far between, and the team didn’t see any at a tournament recently in Hattiesburg.

&uot;It’s about all I threw my senior year,&uot; Doughty said. &uot;There would be times when all they’d see was riseballs. When I throw mine, I get down really low. I guess that can give it away. The others pitches you’re not getting down as low.&uot;

It’s still tough to pick up, especially with pitchers who have quick releases or just flat out throw hard. Corley, who also had a banner year on the mound as a junior this past spring, throws perhaps harder than any of the four and is starting to get it down.

But just like the reason for learning the pitch in the first place, you’ve got to keep improving. Batters will get smart real quick.

&uot;Once you get the backspin, it’s a matter of you can’t throw it too hard,&uot; Corley said. &uot;If you throw it too hard, you can’t have perfect backspin. You’ve got to keep (batters) off balance. It can always get better. It’s never perfect. Once you throw it, you’ve got to keep on getting better and better.&uot;