Kirin Kumar is a phenomenal hitting coach. The year before she took over Ohio State hit 65 home runs and had a team BA of .299 and a team OBP of .389. In 2025 they hit 147 home runs, a team BA of .336 and a team OBP of .443. Even having a down year this year they hit 119 home runs, had a team BA of .307 and a team OBP of .407. She made similar improvements to the hitters at Miami OH as well. Taking solid hitters and turning them into elite power hitters. Historically she hasn’t been able to establish a dominant pitching staff the same way she transforms hitters. If she can figure out the pitching her teams will be dominant.

Personally I think that more teams need to move to pitching staffs and not just 1 dominant pitcher. The hitters are too good and adjust too quickly. You see it at the WCWS. Even the most dominant pitchers start to get hit hard the second or third day in a row a team sees them.

As a pitching coach I think it’s a much harder sell at the travel level to convince coaches to let other girls develop at younger ages and stop pitching solely your 1 & 2 all tourney long. Despite advocating against it I still see many of my 14u and younger girls throwing 60% or more of their team’s innings at tourneys. It drives pitchers out of pitching at young ages and those pitchers don’t magically reappear at 16u and 18u. But I’ll leave that rant for another post.