Pitching

In Slowpitch Softball, the pitcher must start with one or both feet in contact with the pitching plate. He may take one step in any direction, but one foot must remain in contact with the pitching plate until the ball is released. The ball is lobbed underarm and must have an arc which reaches at least six feet and no more than twelve feet from the ground. Anything else will be called an illegal pitch by the umpire and will count as a ball unless the batter swings at the pitch.

The pitcher in Slowpitch may seem on a hiding to nothing, since everyone is going to hit the ball. But the trick is to use different kinds of spin, a high arc and variations in the speed or angle of delivery to make things as awkward as possible for the batters. As shown in the diagram, the batter will be standing next to home plate, ready to hit. Here comes the pitch! For a moment, let's ignore the main object of the game, which is for the batter to hit the ball. Suppose he/she doesn't? What happens then?

Strikes and Balls

A pitched ball will be described (by the umpire) as either a STRIKE or a BALL. Basically, a strike is a good pitch and a ball is a bad one.

A GOOD PITCH

· Must be pitched from the pitching plate.

· Must have an arc of between 6 and 12 feet from the ground.

· Must not, in the opinion of the umpire, be too fast.

· Must pass between the height of the batter's knees and back shoulder as he / she stands at home plate in a normal batting stance (you can't make it harder by crouching down!).

· Must pass across some part of the Strike Zone.

Some definitions:

· THE STRIKE ZONE is an imaginary three-dimensional column of space with depth, width and corners corresponding to the shape of home plate. A ball needs to pass through ANY part of this zone to be called a strike.

· A STRIKE is a pitched ball which fulfils all of the above conditions. In all other cases, the pitch is a BALL, unless the batter swings at it. · A STRIKE OUT occurs if three strikes are called against the batter and the batter hasn't managed to hit the ball into Fair Territory.

A STRIKE is called if:

· a pitch is good and the batter fails to swing, or swings and misses, or swings and hits the ball into Foul Territory (without it being caught) or into Dead Ball Territory · a pitch is bad (would be deemed a BALL) but the batter swings and misses it

A BATTER ON BASE or a WALK occurs if:

· A pitcher pitches four BALLS - bad pitches which the batter makes no attempt to hit. In this case the batter will walk to first base.

Putting batters on base is dangerous since it ‘loads the bases’ with runners who can score if a big hitter gets a ball into Fair Territory.

The basic job of a Slowpitch pitcher is to throw strikes!