WORK IN PROGRESS
Thanks to all the umpires who have signed up to cover the post-season in-house tournaments each year. There are several rule differences between regular season baseball/softball games and post-season games. There are also key differences between the baseball and softball rules to make the experience even more interesting.
Perhaps the most noticeable difference is we cover the Farm-level baseball and softball tournament games. There tends to be more of these games played than other age groups. These are 8U players that likely never had the pleasure of having a real umpire making calls behind them so hopefully you make a great impression on them.
What follows will be a comprehensive list of what to pay attention to for each age group. We only cover Farm, Minor and Major baseball and softball games plus Jr/Sr softball games. Reserve baseball does not play in this tournament as of the 2023 season.
Farm
- Baseball
- No new inning after 75 minutes (1hr 15min)
- Pitching
- Kid-pitch during ODD innings
- Coach-pitch during EVEN innings
- Coach-pitch after ball four
- Coach-pitch after six total pitches to one batter
- Coach-pitch after batter hit by ball
- One pitcher per inning
- During kid-pitch, if coach pitches and two strikes exist at the time, strike count will be reduced to one before coach-pitch begins
- All players and coaches must pitch from the rubber. Coaches may stand, squat or take a knee to pitch.
- No walks allowed
- Base Running
- No extra bases on overthrows
- No stealing
- Once ball reaches the infield, regardless if the fielder has control, play stops but runners are allowed to finish advancing to the base they are already headed to at their own risk
- NO TIES
- "California rules": last out reported goes on 2nd base, 1 out - each team gets an attempt
- Play continues until a winner is achieved