Bri Godfrey was in tears during her first pitching training back home in southern Florida.
The Maryland softball junior was trying to completely change her throwing motion for the upcoming season, so her long-time pitching coach wanted to start with basic-level drills. But even those felt difficult.
Godfrey has worked with her pitching coach Steff Call since sixth grade. She came to Call with a desperate proposition this winter: Godfrey needed to rework her motion in six weeks.
“I was definitely a mess,” Godfrey said. “I went to [Call], and I was like, ‘I just don’t feel like myself right now.’”
After a disappointing ending to her sophomore campaign, Godfrey’s fall outings ended in similar disheartenment. The junior’s ERA jumped from 3.20 to 5.61 in her final nine appearances as a sophomore, and she struggled to begin the fall season.
“It kind of got to the point where it was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing and I need to fix it,’” Godfrey said.
And with former ace Courtney Wyche departing, Godfrey was expected to take a leap this season. Coach Lauren Karn offered her two options in their fall meeting: make tweaks to her current form or completely revamp her pitching style.
Godfrey decided to start from scratch.
[Maryland softball drops third straight to No. 7 UCLA, 10-1, after disastrous fifth inning]
Karn — a former pitcher herself — wanted Godfrey to have a tighter motion with more spin on the ball instead of just throwing as hard as she could. The junior returned from break and stepped into the No. 1 role this spring with a brand new form.
Her 4.32 ERA is second-best among the current pitching rotation.
“With her size, she’s always been told she has to get as big and as powerful as she possibly can get in order to have success,” Karn said. “That usually leads to higher velocity but can change the pattern in which your ball spins and where it moves. So we worked really hard on focusing on how our ball is moving through the strike zone and not just trying to throw it hard.”
Godfrey focused on keeping her hands together as long as possible and holding her throwing arm tight against her body. The south Florida native brought the drills back home to Call.
Instead of high level drills, Call instructed the 19-year-old to work on the basic routines — such as the L-drill and T-drill.
[Maryland softball musters just 3 hits in 9-0 loss to UCLA]
Along with reworking her motions, Godfrey added another version of her normal curveball and a new changeup. Making holistic changes to a pitcher’s form within months is not an easy task.
“I didn’t want her to think, ‘Hey, it’s too big of a task,’” Call said. “This is tangible. This is something that we can break down into smaller steps and then make it something that she can absolutely be successful in.”
Godfrey worked out on her own every morning while training with Call twice a week. She filmed all her home exercises and forwarded them to both Karn and Call for review.
“Knowing that I have such a big support system both at home and here has been super helpful, both mentally and physically,” Godfrey said. “I appreciate the both of them a lot.”
Call liked Karn’s advice and said tying Godfrey’s upper body factors together to her lower body pushing off the mound essentially made Godfrey’s arm “a whip” by the time she released.
The practice turned into results at the Bevo Classic in February when Maryland faced Texas and Texas Tech. Godfrey allowed no hits through the first four innings against No. 8 Texas Tech and paired that with just two hits and no runs allowed against the No. 1 Longhorns in 3 ⅔ innings.
Karn has rewarded Godfrey’s progress with more time in the circle. She’s recorded 73 innings through 19 appearances in the circle and leads Maryland’s five pitchers in both categories. She’s thrown four complete games.
“It’s allowed her to have more strikeouts, get more swing and miss, and then ultimately set that result better and get weaker contact,” Karn said. “Those are all the things that you’re asking all of your pitchers to do.”
But it’s hard for pitchers to completely change their old habits. Godfrey allowed eight runs in ⅓ innings of work against No. 7 UCLA in her most recent outing. Still, the pitcher has faith her motion will work in the long-term.
“I finally found my confidence again this season,” Godfrey said. “I have the potential and I can beat whoever I want to beat with my talent.”
