I agree, if you don't get NL this year, it could be a long time. Watched Hill from Corbin pitch against M'boro. She pitched very well, kept their timing off the entire game. Like B.I. stated, Hart will have them hitting on all cylinders come mid-May. He has a nice 1-2 punch in Hill and Brock.

 

:thumb: I really like Hill and Brock, they just need to pick up some velocity and a little bit more movement on their pitches. You have to have a solid 1-2 punch these days. What helped North a TON last year was the emergence of Carrie Cobb as not just a good #2 pitcher, but an excellent pitcher who could have been the #1 pitcher for most of the teams I saw last year. I also like Coach Hart. He is a class act. I really like the effort he is putting into the Corbin program. But IMHO, there isn't a better coach in the region than Weaver at North, and giving him this much young talent to work with is sort of scary. I agree that May is when a team really needs to start hitting their stride. I just read tonight that last season, in the month of May, North was 14-0, outscoring their opponents 108-5 and beating numerous ranked teams in that stretch. This team seems to be hitting the ball better at this point in the season than they did last year. If they continue this, they could be hard to handle by the time late May rolls around this season. Their youth is probably why Southwestern wanted to play them early and also why North wanted to face Kosmecki from SW early as well. That was a good early test against a quality pitcher for them.

 

But out of all the players I look forward to seeing this season, Emily Gaines for South Laurel may be the best in the region. She was one of the best hitters in the state last year as a sophomore, is a solid pitcher if her back doesn't give her the problems, and a tremendous defensive player. She is one of those rare players that can truly do it all.

:thumb: I really like Hill and Brock, they just need to pick up some velocity and a little bit more movement on their pitches. You have to have a solid 1-2 punch these days. What helped North a TON last year was the emergence of Carrie Cobb as not just a good #2 pitcher, but an excellent pitcher who could have been the #1 pitcher for most of the teams I saw last year. I also like Coach Hart. He is a class act. I really like the effort he is putting into the Corbin program. But IMHO, there isn't a better coach in the region than Weaver at North, and giving him this much young talent to work with is sort of scary. I agree that May is when a team really needs to start hitting their stride. I just read tonight that last season, in the month of May, North was 14-0, outscoring their opponents 108-5 and beating numerous ranked teams in that stretch. This team seems to be hitting the ball better at this point in the season than they did last year. If they continue this, they could be hard to handle by the time late May rolls around this season. Their youth is probably why Southwestern wanted to play them early and also why North wanted to face Kosmecki from SW early as well. That was a good early test against a quality pitcher for them.

 

But out of all the players I look forward to seeing this season, Emily Gaines for South Laurel may be the best in the region. She was one of the best hitters in the state last year as a sophomore, is a solid pitcher if her back doesn't give her the problems, and a tremendous defensive player. She is one of those rare players that can truly do it all.

 

To me, it looked as if Hill had picked up a little from last season. She had weird movement on some pitches. Wasn't a curve or screwball, least it didn't appear to be. Kinda tailed away from rh batters. Gaines is tough. What is the back problem? Muscle, spasms or something else????

To me, it looked as if Hill had picked up a little from last season. She had weird movement on some pitches. Wasn't a curve or screwball, least it didn't appear to be. Kinda tailed away from rh batters. Gaines is tough. What is the back problem? Muscle, spasms or something else????

 

That is good news for the Lady Hounds. Movement on pitches makes them so much harder to hit. Last year I saw some pitchers who could absolutely bring it hard, ... but had little or no movement. Without movement, batters will eventually time out the pitches and start making contact. With movement, it is much harder to make solid contact.

 

I think Gaines had a problem with spasms in her back last year which limited her pitching outings. But it had no impact on her hitting and seemed to be getting better by the end of the season. She was able to pitch against North in the regional title game, but you could see after a few innings than it started to lock up on her and she lost some velocity. Good kid and a tremendous softball player. I hope those problems are behind her.

To me, it looked as if Hill had picked up a little from last season. She had weird movement on some pitches. Wasn't a curve or screwball, least it didn't appear to be. Kinda tailed away from rh batters. Gaines is tough. What is the back problem? Muscle, spasms or something else????

 

I haven't seen Hill pitch this year, but IMO Coach Hart has had her working the whole off season to get her where she needs to be!

Looks like Corbin improved as the season went on.