Sometimes, less is more.
It certainly worked out that way for Yorkville’s Madi Reeves in 2023.
The senior pitcher, the Foxes’ ace for a third straight spring, streamlined her offerings to hitters and saved her best for last in leading the team to a groundbreaking season.
Yorkville advanced to the state finals for the first time in program history, finishing second in Class 4A to powerhouse Marist, which took first, second and first the past three years.
“I think our season went even better than anyone expected,” Reeves said. “It was one to remember. I don’t even know how to describe it. It was hard to get away from it.
“I don’t think anybody on the team wanted it to end.”
Reeves was dominant this season for the Foxes (36-3), earning Beacon-News/Courier-News Player of the Year honors for the second time in her career.
A right-hander whose fastball reaches the mid-60s, Reeves (26-2) pitched 16 shutouts and four no-hitters that included two perfect games.
She struck out a career-best 346 in 180 innings, giving up 76 hits and 37 walks. That made for a career-best WHIP — walks plus hits per inning — of 0.68. She closed her career with 936 strikeouts.
And she did it with less.
Reeves, whose freshman season was canceled due to the pandemic, was the area’s player of the year as a sophomore after going 20-4 with 341 strikeouts in 166 1/3 innings. She led Yorkville to its first supersectional.
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Reeves, who has worked with personal coach Jill Waldron since seventh grade, had a repertoire at the time that included six pitches.
A back injury reduced those numbers as a junior to 18-4 with 249 strikeouts in 131 2/3 innings. A healthier Reeves narrowed the focus this spring.
She moved away from her curve and drop balls, sticking with mainly fastballs, riseballs and change-ups. She added a screwball later in the season.
Yorkville coach Jory Regnier, who mainly pitched in high school and some in college, understood.
“For Madi, at this level, her speed is enough for 70% of the batters she faced,” Regnier said. “She didn’t have to overextend. Even in college, you don’t need eight pitches.
“You have a strikeout pitch and a second strikeout pitch, and everything else is just for show. You can almost spread yourself too thin.”
Waldron thinks Reeves’ biggest strength is her mental game.
“She gets out there in a game and she flips a switch,” Waldron said. “You can can see it happen. She turns it on and she’s ready to go.
“Typically, we’re working on mechanics or tweaking things in a lesson. It’s hard to recreate game-like conditions, but when she’s in one, she has ice water in her veins.”
That and the work she has put in outside of pitching in the gym to get stronger made a difference.
“This year, I think it paid off in her velocity, which was up,” Waldron said. “And so was her spin rate.”
Regnier understands pitchers like Reeves don’t come around very often.
“As coaches, we didn’t do a great job preparing our defense that first year but we’ve gotten better,” Regnier. “Madi is a strikeout pitcher. As a defender, you want action. You can’t fall asleep out there. We had to learn to be ready to respond when balls were put in play.”
Assistant coach Megan (Brooks) Leadbetter, a former high school catcher, called Reeves’ pitches.
“I never try to change what a girl’s private pitching coach teaches,” Regnier said. “We developed a good dynamic between the three of us, and Madi came to trust that perfectly.”
The bond paid dividends — and then some.
“I can’t explain how much she loved playing for us,” Regnier said. “She loved to put on the Yorkville jersey and represent her community. Who knows what she would have done if healthy and she had that fourth year?
“It was unrealistic to talk about 1,000 strikeouts this year. It was lofty, but we threw it out there and she came pretty close.”