Ellie had a heated rivalry with another pitcher from our same town. They were always vying for top honors in our program until they both went to club teams and didn't cross paths much any more. In a dome game one winter, the other pitcher hit one batter all day, and it happened to be my daughter. This girl had good control, and it was no accident. It was a fastball, and drilled her right in the ribs. Ellie sneered at her, and told her "nice change-up!" as she took her base. She ended up coming all the way around to score the winning run. They were only up by one going into the last inning when the other pitcher came up. Ellie knew she couldn't risk hitting her with the game close, but she sure made it an interesting at bat. Three high insdie fastballs, all aimed at her head. By the third time diving out of the way, she wanted nothing to do with Ellie. The coach was just going beserk, yelling from third base that Ellie was trying to hit her. A curve ball across the outside corner for strike one, a fastball right down the middle, and a low out side change up that she was a good three feet in front of as she flailed at it. Ellie's catcher said to the opposing pitcher, "now THAT'S how you use a CHANGEUP!"
