Everything Fastpitch - The Podcast · Tory Acheson & Don McKinlay

Line Drive Hitters and Recruiting / Interview with a Jr College Coach / Mount Rushmore Project / Technology in Training

November 19, 2025·56 min·5 clips

Tory Acheson distinguishes between a 'bonnet line drive' and the 'perfect line drive' that college coaches actually want.

Number 397 starts a little rough. The host is flying solo with a scratchy voice after technical trouble kept Coach Don out, but he keeps the show moving. The rundown goes from warm-up bits to a Scott Thomas interview, then into the Mount Rushmore project and a coaching question about technology. The sponsor thread is still there. By the end, listeners get pointed back to Fast Pitch Prep, Square Cuts training discs, the YouTube channel, blog posts, and the usual email inboxes. The best part is the competition talk. Thomas compares Gulf Coast State College's looks against Troy, Auburn, Florida State, and FAMU without turning it into a score-by-score recap. He thinks inning by inning. He says he does not judge ten innings as one big chunk, because each inning tells him something about how players respond. Nerves are a real part of it. Against Troy, he felt his players came out scared, threw the ball around, and had to remind themselves they belonged on the field. Then they settled down. He saw improvement against Auburn, Florida State, and FAMU, with a rough inning here and there but better composure overall. Pitching gets real praise. Thomas sounds happy with both the quality and depth of his staff, especially against programs with different Division I styles. The offense is messier. He does not say they simply failed to hit. The issue was stringing hits together, manufacturing runs, and moving runners around. That is coach talk, but plain enough to land. The episode is strongest once the sponsor reads fade back and a coach gets room to explain what growth looked like against bigger-name opponents.

As heard by us

A solo episode that stays useful, even with the rough audio.

Everything Fast Pitch goes solo this week, with Coach Tory opening by apologizing for the scratchy voice and pointing back to the technical trouble with Coach Don before a return to Zoom next week.

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Why you'd press play

A solo fastpitch check-in with warm-up bits, a coach interview, a player debate, and a coaching-tech tip.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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