I was invited to the Team One West Showcase in Costa Mesa, CA on July 9-10. When the pitching schedule was announced, I was really happy to have the starting slot in the very first game. Since I would only be pitching at the showcase, my commitment was to drive up Saturday morning, throw my two innings at the 10:00am game, and then would get back to San Diego by noon. Pretty sweet!
As much as I want to do well at these showcases, so do the batters. I didn’t see the other team during their batting practice, but the first batter gave me a wakeup call that they came to hit. I tried to get ahead with a low fast ball on the first pitch, which he promptly sent into center field. Okay, time to sharpen up!
It went well after that, and I nearly got through my two innings without a run scored. With runners on first and third, I caught the runner on first off the bag, but the defense bit too hard on him and let the runner on third score. I am pretty sure my high school coach would have had ‘words’ for the infield on that play.
I have been working with my pitching coach on my fastball, and we made a slight change to my delivery. The adjustment has proven itself in practice, but I have not had enough repetition yet and tend to take a little pace off my fastball in games to help with placement. I guess there is never a good time to work on things, but I must keep improving my game.
Here are videos of the two innings I pitched.
First inning
Second inning
