Whether it’s baseball or softball, the relationship between a pitcher and catcher can make or break a team and its success. These two roles have the power to control the game, so it’s important that the two players get along, according to Keene State College baseball and softball players.
“The catcher has to know me more than I know him. He has to know my reactions,” Cody Dube, pitcher for the Owls baseball team, said.
For many catchers, the key to understanding a pitcher is reading their body language.
Christy McGraw, sophomore and catcher for KSC’s Softball team explained, “Going from pitcher to pitcher is difficult. The last game I caught for all three of our pitchers, and it’s very important to know how a pitcher throws in stress situations. If someone’s on third [base], you really have to learn to read their body language,” McGraw said.
Then again, some players expressed that sometimes the catcher will call a pitch that the pitcher isn’t comfortable with.
Brian Cantore / Photo Editor:
Sophomore pitcher Mariah Crisp winds up in a game against Southern Maine on April 19, 2014, at Owl Athletic Complex. Crisp leads the team with seven wins this season.
“There were a couple games where our catcher called a couple change-ups that I wasn’t ready for or comfortable with, but she had the confidence in me to throw them and they worked out,” Kaitlyn Newell, who pitched for the Owls softball team last season, said.
Dube agreed and said, “Sometimes there are days where I just don’t have the feel for a pitch and the catcher will keep calling the same pitch to help me work on it.”
Although the pitchers aren’t always confident in what the catcher is telling them to throw, one catcher said it’s normally to help them improve.
“I told one of our pitchers to throw a splitter the other day and she didn’t want to, so she shook me off and I gave her a screw instead. I don’t take it personally when they shake it off because I know they’re more comfortable with something else, but if no one’s on base then I’m more comfortable wasting a pitch that they normally don’t throw just to get them working on other things,” McGraw said.
In baseball the pitcher-to- catcher ratio is a lot higher than in softball, which only has three pitchers versus the 15 pitchers on the baseball team, as expressed by KSC student Matt Boulay. “You spend so much time with them in January and in the pre-season, you end up knowing them like the back of your hand. They’re all different people, but you always have what they throw in your head,” Boulay, catcher for the KSC Baseball team, said.
The players also expressed the importance for the catcher and pitcher to be close off the field, in case the pitcher is having a bad day, the catcher needs to know how to calm him or her down.
“There have been games where I call time and go talk about something un-softball related and just lift their spirits and put them in a better mood. It’s our job to make pitchers perform at their best,” McGraw said.
Although these relationships take time to develop, since new faces are brought to the teams’ each year, trust is the first thing these players need to establish with each other.
“Pitchers have to trust me to call the right pitches and I have to trust the pitchers to do their job and give me the pitches I call,” Boulay said.
Luckily, these two KSC teams have had great chemistry between these crucial roles.
Kendall Pope can be contacted at kpope@keene-equinox.com
