5/31/16
As we sit and contemplate this past weekend of the WIAA State Championships we truly can not get over Day 1 at Yakima County Stadium where an unimaginable run of numbers were recorded by the defense and pitchers. This is our “Fun with Numbers” column that we put together only when truly remarkable numbers present themselves.
So here’s what happened that truly left us scratching our heads as to what just happened?
Number of Games: 4
Number of Innings Pitched: 53
Number of Innings Pitched by Starting Pitcher: 51.9
Number of Relief Pitchers and Innings Pitched: 1 and 1.1
Number of complete games pitched on Day 1: 7 out of 8
Percent of innings pitched by Starting Pitchers: 98%
Total Number of Batters: 218
Total Number of Walks: 19 (9% of the batters walked)
Total Number of Strike-outs: 69 (32% of the batters Struck out)
Total Number of Hits: 42 (19% got a hit)
Total Number of Hit by Pitch: 10
Total Number of Runs: 16
Total Runs per inning: .28
Total Number of RBI: 11
Average runs per game: 4
Average runs per team, per game: 2
Most runs scored in a game: 5
Least Scored in a game: 0
Least number of runs scored by a winning team: 1
These are crazy numbers when you consider the very next day in Yakima the 4 games totaled 47 runs or almost 12 per game and increase of 8 runs and 6 per team an increase of 4 runs per team over the day before. Meantime, strike outs dropped by 20 from 69-49 while hits increased 15 from 42-57.
So was it as simple as the number 1 pitchers all went for each team and this isn’t an unusual circumstance? We don’t think so when compared to the 3A/4A Tournament Day 1 in Pasco. A sampling shows they pitched 4 more innings, 61 (they had 2 games go 9 innings, while 1 went only 5) with 12 pitchers and the total number of runs scored was 38. This is an average of 1.6 runs per inning compared to the .28 we saw in Yakima.
Other amazing comparisons saw only 38 strike-outs in Pasco despite 4 more innings while there was 69 in Yakima. 262 batters came to the plate in Pasco while only 218 in Yakima. In Pasco they walked 29, 10 more than in Yakima. There were 32 RBI in Pasco compared to just 11 in Yakima.
Our conclusion is the 1A-2A Tournament featured big-time #1 pitchers combined with outstanding
defenders (14 total errors on Day 1 in Yakima compared to 22 in Pasco) all combined for an incredible day of pitching and defense. Was weather a consideration? It came into play in Yakima with a steady wind coming into the faces of the batters that certainly hung some fly balls up and assisted in some fly-outs but that doesn’t explain the 69 K’s and only 19 walks. It was truly a remarkable day that each of the 8 teams contribute, these numbers don’t happen from 1 or 2 spectacular performances, it was a combination of 8 great performances where each one literally could have come away with a win.