I coach a 10U c (at best) team with almost all first year "travel" players. A couple played on an 8U team last year, but most have one or two at most rec experience up until now.
The league we're playing in has two 10U divisions, one is a normal 10U, ours is more developmental. They installed new rules since we played in the fall. Fall was modified coach pitch, once there were 4 balls, a coach could come out and throw up to 3 more pitches to the batter, put it in play or strikeout during those pitches, strike count remained from player pitch.
For the spring they modified the rules so that the first three batters of every inning can walk, but the 4th and subsequent batters cannot be and will get coach pitch. The other big change is that there is now a maximum of 3 runs per inning instead of the 5 we played in the fall. The thought is that they want pitchers to have some penalty for throwing nothing but balls, and to allow pitchers who can throw strikes really help their team. The 3 run rule was put in because we barley get 3 innings in during a 1:45 game time BEFORE we added walks into the mix.
So I'm trying to figure out my batting order. I have 10 girls that will all bat. My gut was to put the first 3 batters as okay hitters that also take a lot of pitches to try to work the walks with pitching that will be, at least I think, quite rough. Then put my next two best hitters up 4th and 5th, try to drive two or three runs in right away and end the inning on a coach pitch. Then put weaker batters at 6-7-8, and finish up with stronger batters at 9 and 10. It seems really weird to put better hitters so far down in the lineup but with only getting to score 3 runs an inning, I really want to try to avoid innings where we don't score any, and maximize the ones we score 3.
Anyone play by weird rules like this and what did you find that works or any thoughts on my thoughts?
The league we're playing in has two 10U divisions, one is a normal 10U, ours is more developmental. They installed new rules since we played in the fall. Fall was modified coach pitch, once there were 4 balls, a coach could come out and throw up to 3 more pitches to the batter, put it in play or strikeout during those pitches, strike count remained from player pitch.
For the spring they modified the rules so that the first three batters of every inning can walk, but the 4th and subsequent batters cannot be and will get coach pitch. The other big change is that there is now a maximum of 3 runs per inning instead of the 5 we played in the fall. The thought is that they want pitchers to have some penalty for throwing nothing but balls, and to allow pitchers who can throw strikes really help their team. The 3 run rule was put in because we barley get 3 innings in during a 1:45 game time BEFORE we added walks into the mix.
So I'm trying to figure out my batting order. I have 10 girls that will all bat. My gut was to put the first 3 batters as okay hitters that also take a lot of pitches to try to work the walks with pitching that will be, at least I think, quite rough. Then put my next two best hitters up 4th and 5th, try to drive two or three runs in right away and end the inning on a coach pitch. Then put weaker batters at 6-7-8, and finish up with stronger batters at 9 and 10. It seems really weird to put better hitters so far down in the lineup but with only getting to score 3 runs an inning, I really want to try to avoid innings where we don't score any, and maximize the ones we score 3.
Anyone play by weird rules like this and what did you find that works or any thoughts on my thoughts?
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