OTF Home Runs experience...

Prompted by a parent brag post about an OTF HR at 12U.

Our OTF HR experience over the years by age group:

12U Young: Played in a few in-state tournaments= ZERO HR hit for or against us
12U Old: Played in a bunch of in-state tournaments= ZERO HR hit for or against us
14U Young: Played in a bunch of in-state tournaments= ZERO HR hit for or against us (witnessed a couple hit in other tournament games)
14 Old: Played in a bunch of in-state tournaments and traveled to several neighboring states for tournaments= over a dozen HR hit for us and probably 4 or 5 hit against us (DD hit her first)

Do the rest of you see a bunch at 12U? I think in all my years going to games I have only heard or seen 1 girl at 12U hit an OTF homerun.

We had one against us sunday in a TB game. BIG kid, we left the ball too high for her and she took it deep. 200 ft fence.

Very very few OTF HRs at 12U, for or against us. Still saw mainly single digits HRs 14U-16U. Honestly didn't see a dramatic jump until playing 18U when we hit at a rate of .65 HRs per game 22 HRs in 34 games).

Daughter has been blessed with being on talented teams, as I personally witnessed TWO over the fence home runs in 10U. I do not recall any at 11U, and a very talented girl on my daughter's 12U team put one over the fence this weekend. (She had 3 for the weekend).

Now, since my DD is a pitcher, I can count on one finger how many have been hit against her. Zero. I'm sure the day will come, but it hasn't yet!

First OTF HR I saw on a 200ft fence was in 8U. I am sure there is someone on this board that remembers the Bolts 02 team that won the USFA WS in Panama City. Loaded with big powerful girls that could swing a bat.

Our first one for our TB team came our 2nd year of 10's. We had the same girl hit two but none were hit against us. We are seeing the big jump in power this year which will be our second in 14's. We had 4 or 5 last summer and several against us. We matched that total in the fall in a third of the games. DD hit her first in November and has three more during school ball. As a team our TB girls have hit around 30 total during school ball with two accounting for 17 of them.

After going to a few camps and playing against older teams it seems like there is a jump in power between first and second year 14's. My DD and another one of our players went to a small "camp" at a DI here with a total of 8 girls. Basically it was set up so six who were sophomores could work out for the coach and do an unofficial. DD and her teammate were on the same level ability wise but you could see the difference in strength that one year made.

It all depends on the size and development of the girl. Not to brag my DD hits them out all the time and just turned 13. Had 5 last year at 12 playing Varsity softball for the high school team and now is an 8th grader and leads the Varsity team in home runs,Rbi, Slugging... BUT... she is 5'9 and weighs 200 lbs and is a workout warrior. At the NAFA nationals last year several girls hit them out in the 12u tourney

I know of a bunch of girls that DD used to play with that were hitting them at 12U or younger - I never saw them but saw the posts online after.
We had a 6th grader on our MS team this past season and she got her first one at one our games. She's playing in 11U currently. She's a little taller than DD but still very skinny. Another girl on our 14U team that is a year older than DD but still super skinny hit her first OTF last season. She has a lot of power somewhere because she's tiny everywhere else.

Saw our first one hit against us playing against a second year 14U team.

DD1 played on a team that was a mixture of 1st and 2nd year 12U players. We had a 2nd year girl on that team who hit 7 over the fence. Of course, she was 6'2" and a very good athlete. I don't remember any against us.

I have a girl that hit 4-5 each of the past two seasons at12u that would have been over 200' fences had there been fences......she hit 3 OTF in middle school ball last year as a 7th grader.....

When DD was 12U 90% of the girls used aluminum bats and few fields had fences so no OTF HR’s. At 14U we had a 12U girl playing up that had several OTF HR’s and she’s in the SEC now.