Here are the LeFlore County area leaders in percentage of strikes thrown, pitches per inning and strikeouts per inning. This comes after I published a column in today's issue of the PDN about the subject.
Key takeaways: most of the leaders in strike rate are from non-football schools (using that fall season for additional pitching reps), it's strange that 13 fast-pitch softball hurlers had strike rates of at least 63 percent, but only five baseball players did this spring (which may result from baseball pitchers throwing fewer pitches than their softball counterparts) and six players averaged the 17.2 pitches per inning that would be needed to finish seven innings in 120 pitches.
The OSSAA doesn't allow a pitcher to face another hitter after reaching 120 pitches. Of course, in some situations, a team may try to inflict the mercy rule by a certain number of innings so that the pitcher stays under a certain pitch count threshold.
A couple other things: First, it's crazy that Talihina's Kadin Davis threw 2.34 strikeouts per inning. He did that across 14 outings. Davis also completed six games of six innings or more. LeFlore's Chase Lloyd completed five games, although three of those were six innings or more. Also, Davis and Poteau's Caden Fox tied for the most games of six or more innings at five.
Third, tough competition makes it more difficult to throw a very high strike rate, since such teams have hitters that work pitchers deeper into counts. With Red Oak's Chase Pair having pitched against three state tournament teams (Roff, Dewar, Pioneer), another top-five team twice (Wister), Class 5A Coweta and Class 6A Booker T. Washington, his 68.6-percent rate is that much more impressive.
Strike rate
1. Kadin Davis (Talihina) 72.8%, 2. Chase Pair (Red Oak) 68.6%, 3. Gunnar McAlester (Heavener) 65%, 4. Gannon Shackleford (Spiro) 63.5 percent, 5. J.T. Grimsley (Pocola) 63.9%, 6. Tustin Timms (Panama) 62.6%, 7. Brenden Champlin (Buffalo Valley) 61.9%, 8. Trever Lyons (Red Oak) and Chase Lloyd (LeFlore) 61.8%, 10. Cooper Newman (LeFlore) 61.7%, 11. Brex Caldwell (Red Oak) 61.6%, 12. (tie) Jace Hunter (BV) and Tyler Sanderson (Bokoshe) 61.4%, 14. Hunter Sparks (Spiro) 61%, 15. Dakota Perdue (Spiro) 60.6%, 16. Noah Ward (Heavener) 60.5 percent, 17. (tie) Connar Hall (Wister) Garrett Smith (Howe) and 60.4 percent, 19. Landon Donaho (Wister) 60.3 percent, 20. Steven Morris (BV) 60 percent.
Pitches per inning
1. Pair 15.1, 2. Lyons 16.1, 3. Shackleford 16.2, 4. Lloyd 16.2, 5. Davis 16.3, 6. Newman 16.5, 7. (tie) Hunter and McAlester 17.4, 9. Dartyn Meeks (Wister) 17.5, 10. (tie) Smith 17.7 and Caleb Brewer (Panama) 17.7, 12. Timms 17.8, 13. Bryce Morrison (Heavener) 17.9.
Strikeouts per inning
1. Davis 2.34 (136 strikeouts in 58 innings), 2. Hunter 2.03 (62 K in 30 IP), 3. Connar Hall 1.91 (71 K in 37.1 IP), 4. Brenden Champlin 1.79 (61 K in 34 IP), 5. Caldwell 1.54 (54 K in 34.1 IP), 6. Donaho 1.51 (65 K in 43 IP),7. Coby Bell (Red Oak) 1.41 (44 K in 31.2 IP), 8. Pair 1.39 (63 K in 45.1 IP), 9. Ky Lynn (Howe) 1.36 (34 K in 25 IP), 10. McAlester 1.34 (51 K in 38.1 IP), 11. Meeks 1.3 (64 K in 47.2 IP).
