Pitcher Reaction Drill

Explanation: This pitching workout is done on the field. We do this almost every day in the fall in our non championship season. Full squad is in all defensive positions. We place four balls against the fence behind third base, four balls against the fence behind home plate against the backstop and four balls against the fence behind first base.

Rule: Pitchers and cut-off people. One base on fly ball, two bases on a base hit. Coach at home plate with bucket of balls. Coach calls out an offensive situation (i.e. runner on second, no outs). Pitcher will pitch ball to catcher from mound. Coach then hits a ball to the outfield, which can be a base hit or fly ball. Catcher communicates with the defense on where the play is going. Pitcher must react to ball and sprint to her backup position.

In the above situation, if the ball is hit to the outfield and is a base hit, the outfield is making the play to home. Infielders are in a cut-off position for the plate and the bases are covered. We have our first baseman handle all cutoffs, third baseman covers third base, shortstop covers second base and second baseman covers first base. The pitcher must back up the catcher. The outfield plays out the situation with the ball hit by the coach, and we practice on getting the runner at the plate.The pitcher who is backing up home and the catcher then picks up one of the balls against the fence and makes a throw. In this situation, she would be told the runner is going to second and throw to second. We work in all situations with baserunners being at every base. The pitchers are reacting after they pitch and sprinting to the area they need to be in.

This drill also allows us to spend time on all defensive assignments. If you have multiple pitchers (we have five), we rotate pitchers after each pitch. You can make up any situation you want. If we have not executed in a previous game,we will review the next practice.You can work on any situation.You can also use baserunners for more live situ- ational play, although at the beginning we spend time with no base runners, just working on thinking the situation and executing the de- fensive play. We stress proper position by our defense and focus on our pitchers not being a spectator, but being involved.

You may have only one overthrow in a season, but we want our pitcher to be in the correct position that one time when it does occur. You can add to this drill for different players, but we focus on getting the pitchers off the mound and backing up the correct base.