- Apr 1, 2010
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Not saying this is the case in the example cited. But I have often wondered why it is acceptable in HS softball to have 14 year old rec players players on the same field as 18 year old women who are signed to college programs?
But what would you do? Some HS softball programs are very strong and some are quite weak. Do you make the umpires ascertain whether the skill levels are close enough for a game to be allowed?
There's one team in DD's conference that comes from a poorer, largely minority area. They have enough girls to field one team; they only play varsity against the other schools in the conference and naturally, their team is extremely weak. I wish they could be allowed to play JV, but then the rules wouldn't let their seniors play. That team went 0-14 this fall, but in three of the games, they scored a run. Yes, they struggle, but they show up and play. I don't think it would be fair to take that away from them.
I know DD's coach uses those games to give the benchwarmers playing time and to let pitchers other than the number one and two pitch. I suspect a lot of the other coaches do the same. I see only one game that went 0-31, the others were lost by only about 15-16 runs, e. g. folks didn't go crazy scoring, just worked up to the run rule amount by the third inning.
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