The Official S3 Softball Rules
aka "how we get our ball on"
aka "how we get our ball on"
1. 10 players can play at a time, half guys, half girls. There are no rules on who must play which positions. Cheerleader is not a position. Neither is jerk. Let’s have fun.
2. All active players will be put into the batting order. If you will be playing in the field even for 1 inning, you will be batting all game. You can change fielding positions all you would like, but once the game starts, the batting order may not be altered for any reason. The batting order is at the discretion of the team, but must be listed as guy, girl, guy, girl, etc, including bottom to top of the lineup. If you don't have an equal number of players for each gender, once the last guy/girl in the roster has batted, the next guy/girl up is the person at the top of your list of that gender and you go through them again.
3. Once the pitcher has the ball in their control, and is on the mound, “time” will be called and the play ends. No runners may advance. If a runner is ahead of the base when the pitcher has control on the mound, the runner may still advance, but the umps will call time if no aggressive move is made to advance. The pitcher having the ball on the mound doesn’t automatically end the play and send runners back, it’s just so people can’t keep screwing around once the play is basically over.
4. A girl may wear a baseball glove in the field if they choose. Not guys. No metal spikes allowed!
5. Batters start with a 1-1 count. A foul is a strike. You cannot get out on a foul.
6. Strikes, Balls, Outs: Pitch and safe/out calls are up to the sole discretion of the game umpire. Don’t even try arguing with the ump. This is a social rec league so chill out dude.
7. A good softball pitch has a height of the batter until twice the height of the batter and lands on home plate or the strike mat. Pitches outside these guidelines are balls. And don’t try to get walked. That’s lame. Hitting is way more fun! The pitchers are not professionals, so swing at a decent pitch.
8. On an overthrow to first or third, runners are only allowed to advance to the next base beyond where they were at the time the ball was overthrown. This base is not simply awarded, you must still reach it on your own effort. Overthrows to second base are considered live balls and does not apply to the overthrow rule.
9. We enforce an "Infield Fly Rule" only if a double play is turned on a dropped ball that flew up in the infield with an arc of 15-20+ feet. Therefore this will rarely be called, but if it is will be called after the play has ended. This is simply to prevent players from trying to pull a fast one (cheat?) and intentionally drop easy fly balls to turn a double play. Just play with integrity on this please. It is entirely the umps judgement call when to enforce this rule.
10. There are no lead-offs. If you lead off you will be called out. You may leave the base as soon as the ball is hit. You may tag up on foul balls that are caught. Ladies, ask what “tagging up” is. Fellas, keep your answer clean.
11. The pitcher and fielders must stay behind the pitcher’s mound until the ball has been hit. Also, outfielders must remain past the dirt until the ball has been hit. If the fielding team does either of these things, the batter may be given first base. Only 6 players may be in the infield dirt before a ball is hit.
12. Bunting is not allowed. Neither are intentional walks! It’s ridiculous. Just don’t do it. If a guy is walked with 2 outs, the girl after him has the option to be automatically given first. Early in the game the ump may disallow this rule at his/her discretion. This rule is mainly in place to prevent pitchers from "accidentally" walking a guy with 2 outs to get a girl up in a tight game. Again, this is to prevent you from trying to play shady.
13. Games are 6 innings or one hour from game start time, but no inning will begin with less than 10 minutes remaining. Ties are allowed if no time remains, but we’ll do everything in our power to break the tie. We have a good way to do this in an extra inning if there's time. If 2 teams tie, the world is not going to end. Just hug it out and have a drink. There’s always playoffs redemption!
14. A game is considered a complete game if 3 full innings have been completed. If a game is rained out and 3 full innings have been played, the game may be declared official and the score counted as complete. We'll do our best to try to make up the game but we have limited field time for the season.
15. There is a 7 run slaughter rule for innings 1-5, unless one of those innings is declared the final inning of the game. The 7 run inning slaughter rule does not apply if your team is losing by 4 or more runs going into that inning. There is no game slaughter rule. If your team just gets absolutely stomped, there are plenty of shots waiting for you at the bar.
SAFETY IS IMPORTANT: VERY IMPORTANT RULE!
16. There is a STRICT NO CONTACT RULE in effect that BOTH teams must be aware of. Runners must do everything they can to avoid contact, but fielders also must be aware of where they are positioned in relation to the runners and do everything in their power to avoid contact as well. Fielders, DO NOT BLOCK THE BASES. If you block the base or impede the runner from getting to the base, interference may be called and the runner called safe. If you take your last few steps while running home to go around a baseman that's blocking the base so you don't plow em over, we'll likely call you safe. The ump will make the call as to who's at fault with the contact and make the appropriate call as to whether it is safe or out. Situations that arise from contact may warrant a playing being ejected from the game at the ump’s discretion. It is the umpire’s judgment call as to what the call will be. Just remember that this is a fun league and we're here to just have fun, so avoid contact AT ALL COSTS.
17. Your team forfeits if by 10 minutes after scheduled game start time, you do not have at least 8 players, including at least 2 of each gender. We always want to play games rather than forfeit cuz that's just more fun, so the ump may decide to give a team a little additional time to get enough players so we can play a game. You can play with as many girls as you'd like in the field. If you need to have a 6th guy play in the field if you are short girls, this 6th player will be catcher but is not allowed to take plays at home, only throw the ball back to the pitcher. The score of a forfeit game will be 10-0. Tell your team as soon as you know if you can’t make a game!
Those are the rules! Just remember to play fair, have fun, and be safe.
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2. All active players will be put into the batting order. If you will be playing in the field even for 1 inning, you will be batting all game. You can change fielding positions all you would like, but once the game starts, the batting order may not be altered for any reason. The batting order is at the discretion of the team, but must be listed as guy, girl, guy, girl, etc, including bottom to top of the lineup. If you don't have an equal number of players for each gender, once the last guy/girl in the roster has batted, the next guy/girl up is the person at the top of your list of that gender and you go through them again.
3. Once the pitcher has the ball in their control, and is on the mound, “time” will be called and the play ends. No runners may advance. If a runner is ahead of the base when the pitcher has control on the mound, the runner may still advance, but the umps will call time if no aggressive move is made to advance. The pitcher having the ball on the mound doesn’t automatically end the play and send runners back, it’s just so people can’t keep screwing around once the play is basically over.
4. A girl may wear a baseball glove in the field if they choose. Not guys. No metal spikes allowed!
5. Batters start with a 1-1 count. A foul is a strike. You cannot get out on a foul.
6. Strikes, Balls, Outs: Pitch and safe/out calls are up to the sole discretion of the game umpire. Don’t even try arguing with the ump. This is a social rec league so chill out dude.
7. A good softball pitch has a height of the batter until twice the height of the batter and lands on home plate or the strike mat. Pitches outside these guidelines are balls. And don’t try to get walked. That’s lame. Hitting is way more fun! The pitchers are not professionals, so swing at a decent pitch.
8. On an overthrow to first or third, runners are only allowed to advance to the next base beyond where they were at the time the ball was overthrown. This base is not simply awarded, you must still reach it on your own effort. Overthrows to second base are considered live balls and does not apply to the overthrow rule.
9. We enforce an "Infield Fly Rule" only if a double play is turned on a dropped ball that flew up in the infield with an arc of 15-20+ feet. Therefore this will rarely be called, but if it is will be called after the play has ended. This is simply to prevent players from trying to pull a fast one (cheat?) and intentionally drop easy fly balls to turn a double play. Just play with integrity on this please. It is entirely the umps judgement call when to enforce this rule.
10. There are no lead-offs. If you lead off you will be called out. You may leave the base as soon as the ball is hit. You may tag up on foul balls that are caught. Ladies, ask what “tagging up” is. Fellas, keep your answer clean.
11. The pitcher and fielders must stay behind the pitcher’s mound until the ball has been hit. Also, outfielders must remain past the dirt until the ball has been hit. If the fielding team does either of these things, the batter may be given first base. Only 6 players may be in the infield dirt before a ball is hit.
12. Bunting is not allowed. Neither are intentional walks! It’s ridiculous. Just don’t do it. If a guy is walked with 2 outs, the girl after him has the option to be automatically given first. Early in the game the ump may disallow this rule at his/her discretion. This rule is mainly in place to prevent pitchers from "accidentally" walking a guy with 2 outs to get a girl up in a tight game. Again, this is to prevent you from trying to play shady.
13. Games are 6 innings or one hour from game start time, but no inning will begin with less than 10 minutes remaining. Ties are allowed if no time remains, but we’ll do everything in our power to break the tie. We have a good way to do this in an extra inning if there's time. If 2 teams tie, the world is not going to end. Just hug it out and have a drink. There’s always playoffs redemption!
14. A game is considered a complete game if 3 full innings have been completed. If a game is rained out and 3 full innings have been played, the game may be declared official and the score counted as complete. We'll do our best to try to make up the game but we have limited field time for the season.
15. There is a 7 run slaughter rule for innings 1-5, unless one of those innings is declared the final inning of the game. The 7 run inning slaughter rule does not apply if your team is losing by 4 or more runs going into that inning. There is no game slaughter rule. If your team just gets absolutely stomped, there are plenty of shots waiting for you at the bar.
SAFETY IS IMPORTANT: VERY IMPORTANT RULE!
16. There is a STRICT NO CONTACT RULE in effect that BOTH teams must be aware of. Runners must do everything they can to avoid contact, but fielders also must be aware of where they are positioned in relation to the runners and do everything in their power to avoid contact as well. Fielders, DO NOT BLOCK THE BASES. If you block the base or impede the runner from getting to the base, interference may be called and the runner called safe. If you take your last few steps while running home to go around a baseman that's blocking the base so you don't plow em over, we'll likely call you safe. The ump will make the call as to who's at fault with the contact and make the appropriate call as to whether it is safe or out. Situations that arise from contact may warrant a playing being ejected from the game at the ump’s discretion. It is the umpire’s judgment call as to what the call will be. Just remember that this is a fun league and we're here to just have fun, so avoid contact AT ALL COSTS.
17. Your team forfeits if by 10 minutes after scheduled game start time, you do not have at least 8 players, including at least 2 of each gender. We always want to play games rather than forfeit cuz that's just more fun, so the ump may decide to give a team a little additional time to get enough players so we can play a game. You can play with as many girls as you'd like in the field. If you need to have a 6th guy play in the field if you are short girls, this 6th player will be catcher but is not allowed to take plays at home, only throw the ball back to the pitcher. The score of a forfeit game will be 10-0. Tell your team as soon as you know if you can’t make a game!
Those are the rules! Just remember to play fair, have fun, and be safe.
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Playoffs
Starting the first week of playoffs teams will be seeded and placed into multiple divisions based on regular season records where the winner of each will win a team party! Tiebreakers for this are (1) total runs in the season, (2) head-to-head match ups, and then (3) strength of schedule. Because all teams in these leagues are made completely at random, whether you are good or bad is pretty much based on pure chance. This method of running playoffs allows similarly skilled teams to play each other as well as give us the ability to complete playoffs in the field time allotted for the season. Plus these are super rec leagues so the point is to have fun and meet people anyways, not to go crazy trying to conquer every team in a battle royal playoffs tournament. Check your season schedule for details on how the playoffs will be run for your specific league.