New trick play

Heard of a new trick play. I've seen this situation accidentally develop in many games. I've never seen it where the coach tried to orchestrate the pandemonium.

Bases loaded.

1) Girl at 1B take a monster leadoff to draw a throw from C after a pitch.
2) On throwdown to 1B, runner takes off to 2B.
3) Runner at 2B goes between 2B and 3B. She does not advance to 3B. 2B is vacated allowing 2B to be occupied by runner from 1B.
4) Runner at 3B takes a modest lead and waits for opporunity to score if the defense attempts to get one of the runners in a pickle.

sluggers said:

Heard of a new trick play. I've seen this situation accidentally develop in many games. I've never seen it where the coach tried to orchestrate the pandemonium.

Bases loaded.

1) Girl at 1B take a monster leadoff to draw a throw from C after a pitch.
2) On throwdown to 1B, runner takes off to 2B.
3) Runner at 2B goes between 2B and 3B. She does not advance to 3B. 2B is vacated allowing 2B to be occupied by runner from 1B.
4) Runner at 3B takes a modest lead and waits for opporunity to score if the defense attempts to get one of the runners in a pickle.

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Someone tried this against us last year in 12U. We simply threw the ball to the pitcher and got a 'look back rule' out.

By throwing it back to the pitcher, the LBR forces the runners to make a commitment of some kind and since the bases are loaded, the runner on 3rd is the one at the most risk because if the runners decide to keep moving towards the next base, she has to move eventually or she is going to be left in no mans land for an easy out or there is going to be two runners on one base and we'll tag both and let the umpire decide who is out.

As long as C remembers her job to keep the door closed, nothing happens, but the point is to get the dumb ones to forget that, no doubt it works on some.
Instinctively, I'd want to fake to 1B and suck the runner at 3B into a rundown, but turning the runner back to 3B and throwing to P is smarter.

DD's old coach used to do the "dumb runner off 1B" game with much shouting for added realism. There was no living with him when it worked. ;-)

Unless you have 2 outs and willing to take a run for the out why in the world would the catcher try to throw to first? If she commits to the out at first that runner at 3rd will likely score, an overthrow will easily get at least 1 run in... not sure I would waste practice time with team on a trick play that any half decent team would not fall for... much better things to practice - besides a rifle back to pitcher will likely cause a hesitation rule in their favor

Mocoso said:

Unless you have 2 outs and willing to take a run for the out why in the world would the catcher try to throw to first? If she commits to the out at first that runner at 3rd will likely score, an overthrow will easily get at least 1 run in... not sure I would waste practice time with team on a trick play that any half decent team would not fall for... much better things to practice - besides a rifle back to pitcher will likely cause a hesitation rule in their favor

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Why do catchers do half the stuff they do? If half the teams fall for it and if it was successful half the time, 1 out of ever 4 times you will score at least 1 run. I like those odds. I used to run something very similar at the younger ages where given the lack or experience and discipline of defenses it worked quite well and the girls had fun with it. But to your point I don't expect to see it a 18U Gold Nats.

sluggers said:

Heard of a new trick play. I've seen this situation accidentally develop in many games. I've never seen it where the coach tried to orchestrate the pandemonium.

Bases loaded.

1) Girl at 1B take a monster leadoff to draw a throw from C after a pitch.
2) On throwdown to 1B, runner takes off to 2B.
3) Runner at 2B goes between 2B and 3B. She does not advance to 3B. 2B is vacated allowing 2B to be occupied by runner from 1B.
4) Runner at 3B takes a modest lead and waits for opporunity to score if the defense attempts to get one of the runners in a pickle.

Click to expand...

That was classic Bill Conroy from the Bandits years ago. The runner would take off from 1st. He would be screaming for her to go back. She would naturally slip and fall down making her an even more tempting target. If the defense bit on the fake and confusion the runner from 3rd would take off for home. After a while all of the local teams got it figured out and he quit doing it.

In HS DD had a really classic trick play by mistake. Damp day. Runner on 1st. She lost the handle on a pitch at about the 9:00 position of her delivery and drilled it into the ground just behind her to the right. The ball rolled towards the SS. The girl on 1st was so confused she took off for 2nd. The SS picked the ball up, ran to 2nd and tagged the girl before she got to the base.

The plate umpire called the pitch a ball and the field ump called the girl out. The offensive coach went ballistic but the umpires did not change their calls.

When my DD was catching back in the day she was very successful at 1st base pickoffs. She always stepped toward 1st when she threw the ball back to the pitcher when there was a runner on and once in a while she would actually throw to 1st, catching the runner off guard. When the bases are loaded the 1st base runner usually takes too big a lead. My DD would throw to 1st and the 1st baseman would attempt the tag, of course, but her main focus was the runner at 3rd. If the runner at 3rd broke for home 1st baseman threw home. More times than not we got the 1st base runner and several times we got both 1st and 3rd.

Bush league stuff at any age.

Strike2 said:

Bush league stuff at any age.

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Thank you.