Fun fact for the first day or so the ball did actually have to be thrown at the right point of the swing! We even had a thing that made it a little more forgiving where a certain window would still generally send the ball in the camera's forward direction.
But after a little bit of testing, it added an extra layer of learning that I felt wouldn't feel as good in a game jam (especially since we kind of let the early levels just tutorialize the player in a less handholdy way). So I simplified it to just go in a camera direction despite looking jankier hahaha.
Am glad that this decision worked out for a wider variety of players! Def worth revisiting a timing related mechanic in some form if we continue working on the game though.