BREWER, Maine — At least one middle-school baseball conference in Maine will join the high school ranks in the state and across the country in implementing pitch-count restrictions beginning with the 2017 season.
Officials from the Eastern Maine Middle School League, which consists of seven schools largely from Greater Bangor, voted unanimously at their most recent meeting to adopt pitch-count standards based on USA Baseball’s Pitch Smart age-group recommendations.
Those guidelines, developed by a panel of medical experts affiliated with Major League Baseball in a continuing effort to minimize injuries from arm overuse, were used by the National Federation of State High School Associations, which last summer mandated that its members adopt pitch-count limits beginning this spring.
The Maine Principals’ Association developed and approved pitch-count limits for high school baseball in the state last fall using the Pitch Smart recommendations as a guide. And while the MPA doesn’t have oversight over middle-school sports, it crafted additional standards for the younger level in an advisory capacity.
Dave Utterback, athletic administrator for Brewer’s high school and middle school, president of the Eastern Maine Middle School League and a member of the MPA baseball committee, presented the recommendations via email to officials at each of the league’s schools in advance of their meeting.
The EMMSL consists of the James A. Doughty and William S. Cohen schools of Bangor, Brewer, Bucksport, Ellsworth, Reeds Brook of Hampden and J.A. Leonard of Old Town.
“Our schools abide by the NFHS game-play rules so I thought we’d likely want to adhere to the pitch-count rule,” said Utterback. “The seven league schools voted unanimously that it was the right thing to do for kids so we’re going to go forward with it this year.”
The guidelines adopted by the Eastern Maine Middle School League will require no calendar days of rest for pitchers who throw one to 15 pitches in a day, one day of rest for 16-30 pitches, two days of rest for 31-50 pitches, three days of rest for 51 to 70 pitches and four days of rest for 71 or more pitches. There is a maximum of 85 pitches in a day.
Counting pitches likely will fall to team coaches, although Brewer’s middle-school “A” team will play four games this spring at Heddericg Field — home of the city’s high school teams — where the local sports boosters club has purchased a pitch-counter attachment that will be added to the facility’s scoreboard.
The decision by the EMMSL to implement pitch-count restrictions follows similar moves made at other levels of youth baseball. In addition to the new high school mandate, Little League Baseball uses pitch restrictions in its age divisions while American Legion baseball has approved limits that will be implemented for the first time this coming summer.
One concern expressed during the EMMSL meeting involved coordination between middle school and Little League coaches to ensure that pitchers competing on teams at both levels aren’t being overused. The middle-school and Little League seasons run concurrently for much of the spring.
“There are [pitch-count] restrictions with both so it’s just a matter of there being communication between the middle school coach and the Little League coach,” said Utterback. “Not that anybody needs permission from one another but you would hope they would use common sense and judgment so if a kid throws 85 pitches in middle school and needs four days rest, then the Little League coach wouldn’t go and start the kid two days from now. You hope common sense will be applied in both directions.”
Utterback hopes the Eastern Maine Middle School League’s decision to implement pitch limits will serve as a model for other conferences around the region.
“We’re some of the larger schools in this area middle-school wise and we want to set a good example for the other leagues and for the other schools to follow suit,” he said. “We felt it was important to lead the way in that regard.”
