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2008 Inter-town Softball (3rd/4th Grade) Division Rules
(as amended 3/08 with Ayer, Berlin, Bolton, Groton, Harvard, Littleton and Shirley represented)
OUR MOST IMPORTANT RULE IS TO HAVE FUN!
Goal: To teach the fundamentals of softball and to develop a positive attitude towards sports and team play.
General Rules
1. Every coach is responsible for the safety of his/her team.
a. All players must remain on the bench or in out of bounds area, except batter and on deck batter.
b. All catchers must wear proper equipment, even when warming up.
2. Coaches are not permitted in the playing field.
3. No game should be started without a minimum of seven players on a team. A forfeit could be called, however, we are here to let the kids play try your best to work it out. Free substitution of players is allowed. Players arriving late may enter the game immediately upon arriving at a stoppage in play. Late arriving players should be added to the bottom of the batting order.
4. If there is no umpire present at game time, both coaches must agree on a
substitute or the game should be made up.
5. An 11” safety (optic yellow) softball will be used.
Game Rules
1. There are 6 innings per game. Three outs or 4 runs end the inning.
2. Games are limited to 1½ hours. No inning may start later than 1½ hours after the actual start time (i.e., an inning cannot start after 3:30 for a game that started at 2:00)
3. Ten players on the field, the short fielder must stay in the outfield. All outfielders should play on the outfield grass.
4. All players should play four innings and should not sit out 2 innings in a row. (You might try making a position roster ahead of time to post in the dugout so time is not wasted telling the players where to play.)
5. All players must be in the batting order whether they played in the inning or not. Pinch-hitting is not allowed.
6. Bunting is not allowed.
7. We will not honor the dropped third strike rule.
8. A pitcher may be taken out of an inning but may be put back in as long as she has not appeared in more than two innings.
9. Pitching distance is 35 feet. The pitcher must remain within the white circle at the mound. If pitchers are struggling early in the season, coaches may agree on moving pitcher to just outside the circle.
Coaches (for the team at bat) will pitch during any half inning when four walks have been issued. The umpire will call strikes but no balls when the coach is pitching. Opposing team will leave the pitcher at the mound to field the position.
10.Three strikes to a batter is a strikeout; four balls is a walk.
11. No stealing of any base is allowed.
12. Leading off any base is allowed after the ball crosses home plate. If the ball is put in play and a runner has left early a “dead ball” will be called.
13. One base on an overthrow that goes out of bounds. An overthrown ball in the playing field is live until returned to the pitcher.
14.No infield fly rule.
15. A hit can be as many bases as the child can reach before the ball reaches the pitcher’s circle.
Coaches Responsibilities
- Coaches must have player registration forms with them for all games in case of an emergency.
- Before each game, all players’ names in the correct batting order should be submitted to the opposing team for entry into their scorebook.
- Coaches should rotate players to different positions during each game. No one should be an outfielder only.
- The home team is responsible for submitting the game result to the league director for updating the web site or, where applicable, the home team will enter the final game result directly in the league website.
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