IHSA estabishes pitch counts for HS baseball

The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors met at its regularly scheduled meeting at the IHSA office in Bloomington on Monday, December 12, 2016, where the Board voted to implement a pitching regulation Policy in the sport of baseball. The pitch limitations are effective immediately and will be used by IHSA member schools during the 2017 baseball season this spring.
The limitations approved by the Board closely mirror the pitching limitations jointly developed by the IHSA’s Baseball Advisory Committee and Sports Medicine Advisory Committee. The most significant change from the original recommendation is dropping the maximum number of pitches in a game from 115 pitches to 105 pitches.

Click here to see the Pitch Count Guidelines Policy.

“This was a collaborative effort that goes a long way toward making high school baseball in Illinois safer,” said IHSA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee member Dr. Preston Wolin. “I want to thank the IHSA Board, the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, the Baseball Advisory Committee, and all the people who were indispensable in this process for their efforts.”

Dr. Wolin was a guest of the Baseball Advisory Committee at their August meeting, where he presented the recommendations of the Sports Medicine Advisory to the group.

The Board of Directors reviewed the pitching limitation recommendation in the fall and chose to present it to the IHSA membership for feedback during the Association’s annual Town Hall Meetings in November.

“Kudos to the Baseball Advisory and Sports Medicine Advisory committees for working together on behalf of student safety,” said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. “We believe that the NFHS and its state association membership have been leaders in this area in all sports, but ultimately, the high school season encompasses a short window. We hope that youth and travel baseball organizations will follow our lead to help protect these pitchers and their arms.”

The IHSA is developing a process for schools to submit their game-by-game pitching counts via the IHSA website, which will be presented to coaches and school personnel prior to the season. The Board confirmed that a violation of the Policy could result in forfeiture and that all violations of the Policy will be reviewed by the Executive Director on a case-by-case basis.

Courtesy of a press release from the Illinois High School Association.