Everything Fastpitch - The Podcast · Tory Acheson & Don McKinlay

Game Performance vs Practice / Knowing Limits of Players / Mount Rushmore Project

October 22, 2025·52 min·4 clips

Coaches Tory and Don launch the Mount Rushmore Project to rank the four most impactful players and coaches in college softball history.

A 10U lineup looks great in practice. That is the listener's problem, and Torrey treats it like something he and Don have seen plenty of times when kids move into kid pitch. The cage is not the box. Players can look sharp off the tee, in soft toss, during front toss, and even against a machine, then lose the plot when a live pitcher is out there. Don starts with the good news and bad news. The good news: the training is doing something, because the kids are picking up movements and skills at about the right time. The bad news: game pitching changes the whole feel. At 10U, uneven pitches and the pressure of the box can make a hitter look brand new again. Torrey puts the messy version plainly. Kids dive out, run away, swing late, and sometimes cut after the catcher already has the ball coming back. The point is not to treat that like a character flaw. They talk about it as a normal bridge problem: a young player has to carry practice confidence into a game that feels a lot less tidy. The episode has a dugout-advice feel. Torrey asks what coaches should watch first, then looks for practical ways to help hitters look more like themselves against live pitching. The warm-up follows the show's usual rhythm, with listener notes, a city shoutout, player recognition, and an equipment tip wrapped around the coaching. Another thread goes back to high school streaks. Torrey mentions a Wisconsin school whose 108-game winning streak ended in a state championship series, and folds it into the ongoing conversation. The closing turns to college softball history, with listeners asked to name the four most impactful players and four most impactful coaches, the kind of debate these two could probably enjoy for a while.

As heard by us

Practical youth-softball guidance on bridging drill work and live-game swings.

The episode keeps its focus on a familiar youth-softball problem: players can look clean in drills, the cage, tee work, soft toss, and front toss, then lose that shape once live pitching begins.

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Why you'd press play

A coach's-eye listen for 10U hitters who look sharp in drills but freeze in games.

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