Why not play 9?

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Nov 8, 2020
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Watching the CWS right not and it's 2-0 in the 8th inning. Vanda played 12 innings last night vs Zona.
Why doesn't softball play 9 innings?
Both baseball and softball play 7 in High School. Why does College Baseball play 9 and softball still play 7?
It's not the wear and tear on pitchers, baseball pitchers are way more limited on pitch counts and down time after pitching than softball.

Is it something old and unspoken, like the old men in charge, years ago, didn't think the girls could play as long as the boys? That was tennis' excuse as to why men played more sets than the ladies did?

Softball already has a much smaller field, much smaller basepaths and the players are close to the same size (I bet Alabama's softball team out weighs half the men's baseball teams in Omaha on avg per player) so shortening the games makes it seem likes it's just less of a sport.

Come on NCAA, let the ladies play 9, they can hack it.

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Jul 5, 2016
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It may have been something unspoken when the rule was first established, but now, softball is a great game tailored for women and it works well. I can't imagine why we would want to make major changes.
 
Aug 1, 2019
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MN
I would think there would be fewer complete games pitched due to the increased load over an entire season AND because pitchers would face the lineup 4-5 times in a game. Relief pitching would become more valuable, for better or worse.
 
Nov 8, 2020
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Why not have the guys play 7? Shorter faster games would probably increase attendance. JMHO

24,000 fans in Omaha for a 1st round game between schools from TN and AZ. Oklahoma City had 12,000 fans at the finals and one of the schools was from essentially Oklahoma City

Not sure attendance is a hill you want to die on.
The Dodgers had over 52,000 fans at Chavez Ravine last week, NPF can't get a 10th of that if the tickets were free


When you have both boys and girls you spend time with both sports and for years I have heard from the softball camp that it's the same as baseball or that MLB should subsidize a pro league the way the NBA subsidizes the wnba.

There's nothing wrong with asking why softball doesn't increase innings as players go from prep ball to college. Relief pitchers would make the game more exciting, like it does in baseball

Softball is an infant, half the college teams in the country were playing beer league slow pitch 40 years ago. What is wrong with tweaking some rules to get more interest in the game?

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Nov 8, 2020
402
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That women can undoubtedly play 9 inning games is not an argument for making it so.
No, because they can is not an argument for it

Because it would make games more exciting because it would likely require more pitching changes and one dominant starter would not be enough to win every game is an argument for it.
Another argument for 9 innings is that if softball wants to be seen as baseball's equal, it should put in the same amount of work/innings as baseball does to show that it is.

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