bunt defense question

[Osric]

Newly formed local travel team. I'm the batting coach; new coach is taking infield. He is working with the girls on bunt defense tonight. Gives the situation as less than two outs, runner on first.

Defense he tells the girls to use is P, C, and 3B charge. 1B remains at 1st, 2B covers 2nd and SS covers 3rd. I'll admit that I'm not the best infield coach, but this doesn't seem right to me. Any bunt down the 1st base side seems a guaranteed hit to me.

Is this the correct defense?

 

[krrcoach]

What age group? You may be able to get away with it at younger ages.
I have seen a lot of younger teams not cover 3rd well and the runner immediately advances 2 bases, because the LF, C or 3B doesn't cover. I would also recommend your runners to look to see if anyone covers 3rd in the same situation.

 

[slingnit]

There are lots of coaches that keep 1st on the base. But there is no single bunt coverage. If you have a pitcher with decent quickness they can cover the right side. I have a problem with corners charging, at least against good teams. So many kids will show bunt, pull back and swing away. You can get a kid hurt and give up hits. But for every idea one person has there is another disputing it.

 

[JAD]

What age group? You may be able to get away with it at younger ages.
I have seen a lot of younger teams not cover 3rd well and the runner immediately advances 2 bases, because the LF, C or 3B doesn't cover. I would also recommend your runners to look to see if anyone covers 3rd in the same situation.

With a runner on 1B, bunt defense, we teach our P to cover 3B if 3B fields the bunt. If someone other than 3B fields the bunt, then 3B needs to hustle back to the bag. LF should also be charging in for backup at 3B and can go to the bag and make the play if 3B or P do not get there for some reason.

 

[JAD]

Newly formed local travel team. I'm the batting coach; new coach is taking infield. He is working with the girls on bunt defense tonight. Gives the situation as less than two outs, runner on first.

Defense he tells the girls to use is P, C, and 3B charge. 1B remains at 1st, 2B covers 2nd and SS covers 3rd. I'll admit that I'm not the best infield coach, but this doesn't seem right to me. Any bunt down the 1st base side seems a guaranteed hit to me.

Is this the correct defense?

For this defense to be effective, you need a P who is very athletic and can cover any bunt on the right side of the infield.

A better option may be to pull your 2B in and position your 1B behind the bag and towards 2B. The 2B is responsible for anything to the right side of the infield and 1B has the bag. We also use this defense against known slappers.

 

[marriard]

We have a 1B who catches everything thrown her way but struggles throwing (to put it mildly)...

So yeah, we move 2B up, move 1B back to cover a little more of what 2B covers in normal hitting situations and 2B charges bunts along with the 3B, C and P. 1B goes to the bag. We use this against slappers as well.

When we have out backup-1B there, we play it differently and more traditionally with corners charging and 2B covering 1B. Backup is not quite the 1B our #1 there is, but she is reliable at fielding bunts so we take advantage of it.

A couple of years ago I had a total animal at 3B. She believed ALL bunts were hers and she was quick enough to get to a lot of balls you just would normally see someone else field. Anything less than 2 steps from the catcher was ALWAYS hers and everything pitchers circle extended towards home (yes on the 1B side as well). Our 1B that year was really only responsible for bunts down the 1B line and we had 2B cover 1B and P or LF covered 3rd.

Probably 800 other ways of doing this. Take advantage of the type of players you have at these positions and adjust if something makes sense. Nothing is 'wrong' if you get the out consistently and everyone knows where they are meant to be.

 

[catcher23]

my first yr of coaching 9u, my 1st baseman had a amazing glove never missed anything.In the 1st few games on a bunt situation 1st would charge and 2nd covered 1st. my biggest problem was that the 2nd baseman just didn't have the golden glove or the girls throwing could not see the 2nd baseman at 1st.
So what we did is this? Our Catcher played any bunt 3-5 feet in front of her but with( no runners on at 3rd ) We played 2nd up 5-6 ft in between pitch and 1st , 1st played just in front of 1stbase 5-6 feet off the line ,right was 15 ft behind 1st moving on every pitch toward the 1st base line , Center over about 5ft in right center playing short ,SS cheating towards 2nd ,and left 10 ft behind 3rd and SS playing the hole on the left side . this worked for our team the best , we still use it now ! Other teams think we r crazy but it works

 

[coach james]

I want my corners both crashing with the P staying back to back up any throws coming into the infield , 2B takes first and SS will cover two, while LF comes in to cover three and CF covers two and RF will back up first.

 

[YOCOACH]

IMO there isn't any "right" answer. It depends upon the team, the age they are playing, the level of talent of the players and their athleticism. In our area, Level A TB teams will play this situation as P, 1st and 3rd will crash along with C. 2nd covers 1st. SS covers 2 and LF covers 3. RF backs up the throw to first. In the rec leagues around here, you may see this coverage or you may see others such as those mentioned above.

 

[CycloneSoftball22]

There is no set way to run bunt defenses. It all depends on your team personnel and game situations