The RoundHouse | 10/1/2020 7:58:00 PM

 
A white board in coach Kristi Bredbenner's office served as draft central on Thursday's draft day for Wichita State softball. Pitcher Caitlin Bingham owned the first pick.
 
"No-brainer," said Bingham, captain of Team Bingham and author of an unconventional roster strategy for the previous scrimmage. 
 
Bingham drafted for a second straight week, a reward for her performance in the individual points standings. Last week, she didn't select another pitcher. The strategy worked when she went all seven innings in a 2-1 victory for Team Bingham over Team Nickerson.
 
This week, she went with the easy choice to start her team for Saturday's 3 p.m. scrimmage, which is open to the public.
 
"I got another pitcher," she said.
 
And a hitter. 
 
Bingham took Bailey Lange, whose ability to pitch and hit makes her potentially doubly valuable in the fantasy sport-style points standings that are a part of Shocker scrimmages. Bredbenner devised a series that provide competition, mixes in variety with individual points and forces Shockers to think like coaches while running the team.
 
"It's good to keep your team engaged and competitive," she said. "It's really cool, in my opinion, to give our captains a chance to see things from our perspective. They make the changes. They make the lineups."
 
There is a lot of score-keeping going on. That's part of the fun.
 
A double gets a runner to second base and also earns the hitter 20 points. A stolen base earns the runner 10 points. Subtract 10 when thrown out. A pitcher gets four points for each out. Outscoring your opponent in an inning is good for 10 points, at least. Winning a game is worth 50 points for each person on the team.
 
It is softball with a fantasy sports twist, modeled after the Athletes Unlimited league points system. The high scorers from each week become captains and draft teams for the next scrimmage.
 
On Thursday, Bingham picked first and grabbed Lange, Bailey Urban, the other captain, took pitcher Erin McDonald with the second overall pick. Bingham led the previous scrimmage in points as the winning pitcher and Urban walked twice, singled twice and stole two bases to finish second.
 
"This week was a little harder than last week," Bingham said. "I won last week, so you want that same team that you know can win. But, you know you're going up against another captain, so I have to plan for 'Who is this person going to pick.'"
 
Urban expected Lange to go first, as she did before the previous scrimmage. With two pitchers off the board, Urban, an outfielder, felt forced into filling that position.
 
"I know I'm not going to pitch, so I need one of those," she said. "I had to play the trail runner."
 
The COVID-19 pandemic ended scrimmages against outside competition, which was the usual fall routine for the Shockers. 
 
"We're used to getting to play eight games against good opponents in the fall – we've played OU, we've played Kansas, Oklahoma State," Bredbenner said. "Since we can't do that, our eight freshmen aren't getting that game-like experience. This is our way, hopefully, that this is the level you've got to be at and compete at the highest level every single day in practice."
 
Bredbenner is preparing for COVID-19 uncertainty in the spring. Shockers are training at multiple positions in case of a short-handed roster. Pitchers, the hardest position to replace, are separated to keep the virus from sidelining the group.
 
"We're pretty deep at every position," she said. "We're getting our kids comfortable playing positions that aren't their No. 1 choice. If we have a COVID issue and we've got to go and we've only got 15 players instead of 20, and maybe we've lost our entire outfield, we have to have people that feel comfortable."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.