Home team up to bat, behind in the score. They are at the bottom of their line up with only two minutes left on the clock. Coach told girl to put her foot on the plate and swing at the pitch regardless of its location. He was trying to get his girls out fast so they would start a new inning and he would then have stronger part of the lineup at bat. Doesn't the batter have to make contact and not just swing to be out for stepping on the plate?
foot on the plate during at bat
- Thread starter Stryckout
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- Aug 6, 2013
- 303
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The reason he had them put their foot on the plate is because he wanted them to JUST strike out - If they "accidently' hit the ball they would still be out.
I am speechless at this. The other coach should have had his pitcher take 20 seconds per pitch and this whole charade would have been over when the 2 minutes were up.
A coach cannot instruct a player to deliberately violate a rule. At least I better not hear it. This is especially true if the team is going to gain an advantage from it. There's also a rule that states that the umpire is not to enforce the penalty for a violation if doing so would benefit the offending team.
This goes far beyond "strategy."
This goes far beyond "strategy."
And what happens when the batter gets nailed with a pitch, and she has a foot on the plate? If the pitch is a strike, all you have is a hit little girl. I don't understand the coach's philosophy. Did he have his DD do this?
- Aug 6, 2013
- 303
- 0
I would hope that is what the other coach did -
I'm always torn about this kind of stuff - The fact that the game is designed to be untimed and we add a clock -
Is it fair to use the clock to your advantage? To what degree?
- Feb 7, 2013
- 3,188
- 48
If you have timed games, I think you use the clock to your advantage. While we coaches have all been in games when ahead in the last inning of a timed game we have slowed the game down (e.g. take a trip to the circle, etc), but I have only had to use what I would call "questionable tactics" once. We were in a tournament that was 1.30 hours drop dead where the score would revert back to the previous inning if you couldn't complete the last inning after drop dead. We won our first two games of pool play and we only needed a tie or win to get the #1 seed going into single elimination Sunday. The team we are playing also has 2 wins in our pool but we have the tiebreaker over them based on runs scored. We are home team. In the bottom of the 5th we are down 1 run with about 7 mins left in drop dead. With one out, we score a run to tie the game. Runner on 1st. I tell the baserunner to leave early, during the wind-up on the first pitch she leaves base early as soon as the pitcher starts her wind-up, 2 outs. I call our batter over and tell her to swing as soon as the pitcher releases the ball. She does this three times. Three outs. A few minutes left, the game goes to the 6th inning. The other team scores a couple more runs but but time has expired and the score reverts back to the previous inning, tie game but we get the #1 seed because of the tiebreaker. Other coach is livid, complains to umpires to no avail. The #1 seeding was important for us and ended up going on an winning the tournament.
While I wish there were never timed games and we could always play 7 innings, you have to be smart and use the clock to your advantage sometimes. With that said, the original post situation is different because you are telling the bottom of the batting order that we have zero confidence in you as a player. That I would not do, even with 2 outs.
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I don't see the logic in ending the 5th inning early after you had tied the score and were positioned for the top seed. If you had let it play out, the 6th inning wouldn't have started. IOW, you gave the other team a chance to win by playing the clock instead of the game.
