Eight years later, pitch count doing its job limiting arm injuries in high school baseball

MANSFIELD — It was the 2012 high school baseball season and JR Davis was a senior pitcher for the Mansfield Senior Tygers.

His Tygers were ahead in the fifth inning of the first game of a two-game series against crosstown rival Madison. Davis was scheduled to start in Game 2 at home, but with his team in the lead and a chance to pick up a win in Game 1, he was called on to come in and close things out working the final three innings. He did and the Tygers picked up a huge victory over the Rams.

After throwing between 30-40 pitches in the Tuesday win, Davis was called upon to start in the Wednesday finale in which he tossed a complete-game in the victory reaching 144 pitches. He was the team's ace and the Tygers' best chance to win was when he was on the bump.

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Fast-forward to 2024 and Davis cannot help but to think that maybe he was one of the prime examples of why the Ohio High School Athletic Association revamped its pitch rules in 2017 going with a pitch count model instead of the traditional 10 innings in three days system it had used for years.

And rightfully so. After attending Ohio Valley College in Parkersburg, West Virginia to pitch, Davis had shoulder surgery during his senior season and never threw another pitch in a competitive baseball game again.

Before 2017, it was common to see a pitcher throw seven innings one day and turn around and toss three more the following day, or vice versa in Davis's case, regardless of the number of pitches thrown. It was allowed after all. But after a rise in overuse arm injuries across the nation, the OHSAA, at the requirement of the National Federation of High School Associations, devise a pitch-count rule that focused on the number of pitches thrown directly correlating to the following days of rest.

For the last eight seasons, teams around Ohio follow a simple formula:

1-30 Pitches: 0 days

31-50 Pitches: 1 day

51-75 Pitches: 2 days

76 or More Pitches: 3 days

Maximum: 125 pitches

So, by those rules, Davis would not have been allowed to come back the following day to start the second game of the series and his 144 pitches in Game 2 was over the max by 19.

Now the coach of the Tygers, Davis sees both sides of the coin when trying to navigate pitch count rules while also trying to care for a pitcher's arm in the long term.

"It has its positives and negatives," Davis said. "It kind of punishes the coaches who do things the right and responsible way, but it also saves kids from the coaches who don't do things responsibly. Sure, we want to win, but we going to do it at the expense of a kid's arm."

On April 29, the Tygers started the week off with a nonconference game against Marion Harding and had two Ohio Cardinal Conference games in the following two days. Not wanting to see any of his pitchers not be available for the series with Wooster, Davis used six different pitchers in a 25-0 loss with just one throwing more than 50 pitches so the other five would be available the next day. It allowed the game to get out of hand, but in a meaningless nonconference game, it was the reality Davis was faced with.

"As a coach now, I know how important pitching is in high school baseball and now, you need a lot of arms," Davis said. "When we play bigger schools like Mount Vernon and Wooster who have their pick of high-quality pitchers and who hit the ball extremely well, I find myself just trying to get through the game with a lopsided score because I need to keep kids eligible to pitch later in the week. I have pulled pitchers in the middle of an at-bat because he is at 29 pitches and if he hits that 30, he has to miss the next day."

Small schools seeing strain of pitch count restrictions

The American Sports Medicine Institute and Little League baseball recommends these appropriate maximum pitch counts by age:

• 7 and 8 year olds: 50 pitches
• 9 and 10 year olds: 75 pitches
• 11 and 12 year olds: 85 pitches
• 13 to 16 year olds: 95 pitches
• 17 and 18 year olds: 105 pitches

So the high school-aged kids are actually throwing more pitches in a game than a medical institute recommends. But it would be tough for a small school like Mansfield Christian to abide by those numbers and still put a competitive team on the field. And even further, put an inexperienced pitcher in a safe situation.

Mansfield Christian head coach Cory Branham is fully on board with a pitch-count rule and believes it is the right thing for the kids and their well-beings, but it also puts kids in difficult situations.

"Baseball training now emphasizes velocity and spin rate," Branham said. "Arm, elbow and shoulder injuries seem to be on the rise at all levels. Therefore, some element of saving a kid from himself is logical. I have had one 5-inning complete game (under 100 pitches) and one 6 ⅔ innings outing (pitched the max). Both pitchers were coming off either the exact required rest from their previous outing or the minimum required rest plus 1 day."

Those were both successful situations.

Then comes an unsuccessful situation. In a 27-3 loss to Central Christian, Branham had to use four different pitchers and all of whom threw more than 30 pitches and two threw more than 50 leaving them unavailable for a weekend double-header against Monroeville, a nightmare situation for a small school like Mansfield Christian. The Flames did manage a split in the double-header with a 10-9 win and an 18-9 loss on a day the Flames used seven different pitchers.

"That means we are having to start an inexperienced pitcher out against a varsity lineup," Branham said. "All but securing a victory for the other team. If the other team is able to tee off on a new pitcher, who hasn't exactly seen a lot of comebackers, that's a bad spot."

But, in the end, if it is avoiding overuse injuries, Branham is all for it believing health and safety of a player far exceeds winning.

"I feel like the lingering pain has gotten better," Branham said. "Some of this is due to good therapy. All of our guys have a band, or have access to them. It's not uncommon to see half of our team hitting band work during down time or during warms ups. I feel like our trainer does a good job of promoting the latest proper arm care.  Preventative arm care and recovery arm care techniques are easily available online and through trainers. Probably always has been. But the players seem to be taking it more serious and that helps."

Proper rest leading to stronger outings

Shelby coach Jon Amicone is a stickler for the rules. They are there to follow afterall.

So, when he has a pitcher who is required to rest, that is exactly what he gets. And Amicone is seeing a huge positive out of the proper rest days as his starting pitchers seem to effectively go deeper into games. Shelby ace Nic Eyster is 7-2 on the season and has worked 55 ⅔ innings and thrown 821 pitches. Four times he has thrown complete games and two others he went into the sixth inning and all of those outings have turned into victories.

"I think it does a great job of protecting starting pitchers of over use," Amicone said. "Starters who get a full three days have been stronger and have lasted longer because they are getting the adequate rest that their arms need."

When Eyster is pitching on full rest, the Whippets are nearly unhittable and it is because he enters a start with now aches or lingering pain and can let it rip right out of the gate. Amicone credits that to rest as well as recovery.

"Arm injuries happen because of a lack of buildup or good throwing progression and recovery," Amicone said. "As long as you're doing those things, the arm care, for the most part, should take care of itself."

Amicone does see the other side of the coin as he has had to use eight different pitchers this season but no one on the team has an earned run average higher than eight and six of them are lower than six. While blowouts happen and meaningless nonconference games can lead to interesting situations, as long as his guys are healthy and doing the right things to take care of their arms, that is all that matters.

"It definitely can leave you short handed at the end of the week, which can lead to some lopsided games," Amicone said. "But the good thing that happens is that it allows some of your young JV pitchers to get some varsity experience. I am always for the safety and care of high school athletes, so I fully support he pitch count."

With big names in Major League Baseball going down with arm injuries like Cleveland Guardians' ace Shane Bieber and Atlanta Braves' superstar Spencer Strider seeing their seasons end early leading to arm surgery, the overuse arm injury conversation isn't going anywhere, but high school baseball in Ohio is being proactive and that is a good sign for the future.

jfurr@gannett.com

740-244-9934

X: @JakeFurr11

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Eight years later, pitch count doing its job limiting arm injuries in high school baseball