The ESSC was founded in 2004 and if you were say, 22 years old and started playing with us then, you would be 35 years old now. Great math, right? Well this is a reality for a lot of our players and although our leagues have grown so much in these past 13 years, we’ve also watched as a lot of our players have thrown in the towel.
The smell of fresh cut grass. The shine of a freshly painted line. The glisten of a recently groomed shale diamond. Spring sports must be in the air! While these things might not excite all sport enthusiasts, they certainly make for routine water cooler discussion here at the office.
I am sure you are all getting excited for the upcoming Spring season, especially with the dose of lovely Spring weather we’re having… okay, the snow will eventually melt and the Slo-Pitch season will be upon us yet again! Before the season gets underway, we wanted to share a few tips and tricks on scorekeeping and creating a killer, yet legal, batting order.
Scorekeeping:
The lead off rule is pretty simple. The base running section of our rulebook states: “The runner is called out if they leave the bag before the bat makes contact with the ball.”
Pretty straight forward, but let’s consider some likely scenarios that could pop up during your game. For example, if someone swings and nicks the ball, you are not leading off if you leave the base. If the ball is hit foul, even wildly and obviously foul, you are not leading off if you leave the base.
If you’ve played Slo-Pitch in our leagues before, you’ve probably experienced this particular rule at one of your games:
“If a male batter is walked with balls on each of the first 4 pitches, and is followed by a female batter, the male batter will automatically advance to 2nd base on the walk. The female batter up next has the option to bat or automatically take first base.”
Okay, let’s get technical for a minute here. If you look up “Infield Fly Rule” in the ESSC Slo-Pitch rulebook, here is what you’re going to read:
Adding Premium Equipment to your weekly ESSC Slo-Pitch games is a great way to increase enjoyment, player satisfaction, and sportsmanship. However, many players would be shocked to learn that not every Team Captain knows how to properly set up their fancy new equipment! Fear not, we’re here to set the record straight.
