Fielding situations and strategies

[8U Explosion]

Guys and gals,
I have an 8U team, and we played a tournament on Easter weekend, needless to say we placed 2nd but could have been an easy win for us. the situation that killed us was as follows:
we are on defense, there is 1 out and 2 runners on, one on second and one on third, batter hits and my shortstop tries to make the play at home but no out, next batter hits and my 3rd base tried to make the play at home but no out, so now they have already scored 2 extra runs and we haven’t gotten an out yet, so I finally had them get the out at 1st, and we did but another score came in, the next batter popped up and we caught it.
My question to y'all is, what strategy could I have used to play that inning differently?

 

[Coach Fastpitch]

What was the score and are you the home team or visitors? Was there a clock? If there was a clock how much time was left?

 

[Axe]

I tend to think that in 8U you have to take outs when you can get them. Its relatively easy to score some runs (assuming you had another at bat) but you have to get the defense off the field first. Firing home for a tag play is a low percentage play at any level, I'm not going for that unless I think I absolutely have to. If its a force at home its a different story.

 

[CoogansBluff]

We need more info, as CF requested, but as a general rule, the more runs that are being scored, the more important it is to get the safe out than chase an unsure out, especially when it's the first out of an inning. Most 8U games are high-scoring.

 

[PGSAKen]

Take out at 1 if ahead and that run cant beat you. Walk batter and load bases to force out at home.

 

[Axe]

Take out at 1 if ahead and that run cant beat you. Walk batter and load bases to force out at home.

There are generally no walks in 8U, so no way to make this happen.

 

[David Carter]

I tend to think that in 8U you have to take outs when you can get them. Its relatively easy to score some runs (assuming you had another at bat) but you have to get the defense off the field first. Firing home for a tag play is a low percentage play at any level, I'm not going for that unless I think I absolutely have to. If its a force at home its a different story.

This ^^^ at 14U I take my outs where I can get them. My girls are already sick and tired of hearing it but my mantra is " I WANT MY OUT", yes I do teach them to get the lead runner, yes if the situation warrants (go ahead run at end of game) throw home. However they all understand when the ball is put in play the most important thing for them to do is to make an out somewhere, somehow.

If every time the ball is put in play and one of your defenders as an opportunity to get an out and they record an out you will give your team a chance to win a lot more ballgames than you lose.

 

[coach james]

However they all understand when the ball is put in play the most important thing for them to do is to make an out somewhere, somehow.

Yes, yes, yes!!! Lead runner is nice but at the very least you had better get us at least one out!!!

 

[8U Explosion]

the score at that time was (us 7 and them 5) we where home team and there was about 10 minutes left for the end of game.

What was the score and are you the home team or visitors? Was there a clock? If there was a clock how much time was left?

 

[8U Explosion]

that make a lot of sense cause we did have another at bat and scored 4 runs but came up short 1 run to tie, and we went for the outs at 1st then it might have changed the end result..

I tend to think that in 8U you have to take outs when you can get them. Its relatively easy to score some runs (assuming you had another at bat) but you have to get the defense off the field first. Firing home for a tag play is a low percentage play at any level, I'm not going for that unless I think I absolutely have to. If its a force at home its a different story.