Softball safety becomes hot topic
It happened so fast that the line drive struck Valley pitcher Olivia Traini before the ringing sound of the aluminum bat reached the dugouts.
Leechburg softball coach Jim Oberdorf watched helplessly from his coaching box along the third-base line as Traini collapsed after being hit in the face.
"I'm an ex-cop, and I saw a lot of things before I retired, but this one really, really bothered me," Oberdorf said.
In a span of five days from March 27-31, two WPIAL softball pitchers suffered serious head injuries after being struck by line drives.
Both players were released from the hospital last week and continued their comebacks at home.
Several coaches said the injuries have sparked a new debate on the safety of girls softball, due to advances in equipment, and rules that possibly haven't kept pace.
Traini suffered a broken nose and had three teeth knocked out when she was "line-drived" March 27. She was treated at Allegheny Valley Hospital and released that night.
Traini's mother, Cathy, called her recovery "fortunate" so far.
St. Joseph senior pitcher Megan Smith, of Saxonburg, spent two nights in Children's Hospital after suffering a fractured temporal bone on the side of the head while pitching in a game at Riverview on Monday.
Kathleen Smith said the situation left her wondering whether her injured daughter was very unlucky -- or incredibly lucky.
"A little bit lower, or higher, and it could have been very serious," she said.
In the days following the injuries, a growing number of softball coaches said they'll encourage pitchers and certain infielders to wear protective masks.
Several coaches also spoke out in favor of a rule change that would move the pitching position back from 40 feet to the NCAA distance of 43.
"Why is it that we have to wait until someone is almost killed before we change a rule?" Knoch coach Scott Docherty said. "I hate to say it, but I've been predicting for years that these injures were inevitable.
Docherty said the pitcher is only about 35 feet from home plate after dragging the back foot and releasing the pitch, leaving a fraction of a second to react to a line drive.
"These girls are almost defenseless at the end of their pitching motion," he said. "They're so close to the plate, and they have no way to protect their heads. As coaches, we see close calls with line drives all the time. Sooner or later, someone is going to get killed. It's madness."
Preventable injuries?
Girls softball equipment hasn't inched ahead, it's rocketed forward, according to Jim Gonder, president of the Pennsylvania Softball Coaches Association.
Composite bats capable of compressing and propelling the ball off the barrel, and end-weighted, light-weight aluminum bats that provide more swing speed, all add up to trouble. The risk exists not only for pitchers, but infielders creeping forward to field a potential bunt.
"In the past five years, I've seen the change," Gonder said. "The ball is coming off the bat faster. The game has changed."
Dozens of bats have been ruled illegal in recent years, he said.
Softballs are anything but soft. They must conform to Amateur Softball Association rules, with a compression not above .375 pounds.
Oberdorf, who has helped develop eight college pitchers in 29 years at Leechburg, wonders if anyone is paying attention to the danger.
Are high school sports governing bodies such as the WPIAL, Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), and National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) aware of the increasing risk?
NFHS officials, based in Indianapolis, did not respond to interview requests.
"Have these leagues forgotten how far the game has evolved," Oberdorf said. "To work its way up to some of these organizations, you wonder if somebody has to be killed, or a heck of a lawsuit has to be filed."
WPIAL executive director Tim O'Malley said his league's softball committee already has proposed moving the mound back to 43 feet, but the PIAA did not act on the request and chose to stick with the national high school guideline (40 feet).
"We don't make the rules in high school athletics," PIAA assistant executive director Melissa Mertz said.
Mertz said it's possible some junior varsity pitchers would struggle to get the ball over the plate from 43 feet.
"You could argue it both ways, but we're not turning a deaf ear to it (softball head injuries)," she said. "We're watching what's going on."
If WPIAL schools don't go along with the PIAA on the 40-foot mound, they risk losing catastrophic insurance provided by the state organization, O'Malley said.
"To date, our efforts (to have the softball mound moved back) have been unsuccessful," O'Malley said. "Unfortunately, we here at the WPIAL are looked at as the governing body. We are not."
Shaler softball coach Skip Palmer supports moving pitchers back to 43 feet.
"No doubt about it, it gives the batter more chance to see the pitch, and the pitcher more reaction time," he said.
Whatever happens, Kathleen Smith hopes it changes soon.
"It's my belief this will happen again if they keep the mound at 40 feet, the way the ball jumps off the bat," she said. "It's very dangerous. If my daughter were a few more feet back, she could have dodged that ball."
O'Malley said the WPIAL's request wasn't based on safety. It was intended to increase hitting while decreasing pitcher domination.
"We're concerned about these recent injuries, but any time you step on the athletic field, there's an inherent risk of injury," O'Malley said. "We're not cavalier in our attitude about this, but we can't guarantee anybody's safety in a high school sports event.
"Certainly, nobody wants to see these types of injuries, but the risk of injury exists in sports, and we can't change that."
Cost of change
Oberdorf, who retired after 23 years as a state trooper, said changing the pitching rule wouldn't be expensive.
He laughed when asked what it would cost to move back the rubber stripe pitchers push off during their deliveries.
"Give me five minutes, a pry bar, shovel and a tape measure, and I'll move it back," he said. "It's a piece of rubber with three stakes. Most softball fields in the WPIAL are shared with youth baseball and softball leagues, so the pitching strip is moved all the time."
Cristina Alvarez, spokesman for the Florida High School Athletic Association, said her organization is completing a three-year experiment with the 43-foot rule, and will pass its findings on to the national (NFSH) organization.
"We haven't heard of any major injuries since moving back to 43 feet, but we didn't track injuries before the change," she said.
Moving the softball pitcher's position back to 43 feet also would eliminate a gender equity issue.
Boys baseball teams currently pitch from a mound identical to NCAA dimensions of 60 feet, 6 inches from the front of home plate. Girls softball pitchers are 3 feet closer to the batter than their NCAA counterparts.
Protective face masks offer potential as another low-cost solution to the safety issue, according to Riverview athletic director Bob Kariotis. Prices range from $45 to $120.
The four teams involved in the two recent head injuries -- Valley, Riverview, St. Joseph and Leechburg -- made protective face gear available to players last week.
"The kids who are most likely to get whapped are the pitcher and the first and third basemen," Kariotis said.
Kariotis witnessed the line drive which injured Smith. As a result, wearing face protection is no longer optional for Riverview pitchers and some infielders.
"I've been around sports for 35 years, and I'm still shaking from that injury," Kariotis said. "I was afraid she wasn't getting up. I never want to see one of our girls get injured like that."
Kariotis said he'll ask his school board to make it policy.
He said school boards can take a stand and require certain players to wear protective gear as long as it conforms to standards which are enforced by the umpires.
"A kid could be killed," Kariotis said. "Why would you ever take that risk?"
Pitchers at Plum, Hampton, Kiski Area, Freeport, Burrell and Quaker Valley also are using helmets or masks.
"If you pitch long enough, you're going to get hit," said North Hills coach and former Washington and Jefferson College pitcher Dana Pecanis. "I definitely got hit. It happens to every pitcher."
Pecaris said junior varsity pitchers and infielders in her program have begun to wear face protection.
"I'm seeing a lot more girls wearing them," she said. "The way the ball is coming off the bat is a lot faster than it used to be."
Some new, lightweight masks are made from polucarbonate materials used to make bulletproof glass.
Bill Palermo, who has coached the Sto-Rox softball team for 30 years, said he'll let his players make the call.
"Line-drive injuries are one of the risks of the sport," he said. "I think it's a player's preference whether they want to wear a helmet or not."
Additional Information:
Dangerous pitches
Here are the three most common softball pitches, and a look at how vulnerable pitchers can be after releasing the ball:
• Fastball
Glove hand is below hips, elbow of pitching hand is pointed toward the catcher (pitching hand is moving backward on the follow-through), pitcher is driving forward and is not stationary.
• Curveball
Glove hand is below hips, but pitching hand comes in front of body, giving the pitcher a chance to block a line drive.
• Riseball
Glove hand is below hips, the pitcher's head comes up, and the back leg collapses exposing the chest and head to injury.
Additional Information:
Adding up the risk
• 40 feet -- Distance from front of home plate to front of pitcher's rubber under current National Federation of State High School Associations rules.
• 60-62 mph -- Estimated top speed for a high school fastball.
• 0.4 seconds -- Time it takes for a fastball to reach home plate.
• 0.3 seconds or less -- Time it takes a line drive to come back at the pitcher, according to several veteran WPIAL coaches.
• 3-5 feet -- Average stride, or leap, toward home plate by a WPIAL softball pitcher.
• 35-37 feet -- Distance remaining between batter and pitcher during bat impact.
Sources: NFHSA, WPIAL coaches
