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| SOFTBALL LINKS |
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2 The Hard Way And Other Matters
by Dave
Thursday, July 10, 2008
It's late in the game. The score is tied or your team is up by one. Your opponent has loaded the bases with one or no outs. You make the strategic decision to pull the infield in. You yell "infield, come on in." The girls give you a funny look, take a step forward and get ready for the next pitch. (Alternatively, they run to the pitching circle and wait for you to come out!) The batter bounces a nice one hop to your pitcher. She turns quickly, fires and throws the ball past the retreating first baseman who is late getting to the bag.
Here's a slightly different, probably more realistic scenario. Your pitcher or one of the corner infielders fields the ball cleanly, makes the throw properly to home. Your catcher either realizes it is a force and just catches the ball like a first baseman or forgets the situation and waits to apply a tag. You get the out but the next hitter drives in the winning run with a clean base hit.
How about this? A pop fly is hit to one of the outfielders and she catches it, then dutifully lobs it to an infielder never realizing that the runner from third was tagging up. Maybe an infielder went and grabbed the pop with her back to the infield and forgot that the runner from third can score. That's probably more likely on a pop into foul ground, behind first or third.
In any event, ball game over. You lose.
What the heck went wrong? The answer is a question. What did you do in practice?
There are obviously times when you want your infield in. There may be times when you want both the infield and outfield in. If you've never so much as mentioned this before in practice, you are going to perform a great comedy when you just happen to bring this up during a game. What did you think would happen? A better scenario is to have spent at least a half an hour on this in practices so let's examine these end game strategies in a little more depth and hope that you go over them during practice rather than bringing it up for discussion out in the circle as an in-game lesson.
First of all, what do we mean "bring the infield in" and why do we want to do that? By infield in, unless you play your corner infielders well back, behind the bags, you probably don't really want them to move in towards home much. Our corners play about 5 feet in front of the bag on a non-bunting play. Another five feet forward should suffice since one would hope they can quickly make the throw to home in plenty of time on most plays. Your middle infielders should be slightly in front of their respective baselines. They need a clean line to the plate and we aren't willing to risk them being interfered with by a baserunner and then hoping the ump will make the right call. So they should go to the line and then take a healthy step forwards.
More important than the fielders' positioning is the knowledge that come heck or high water, their next move after fielding a ball does not involve any thought. Rather it is a strike thrown at the chest of the catcher. The catcher should shed her helmet on contact between ball and bat. Her expectations are to catch a perfect throw with both hands, then quickly turn and make the throw to first base where somebody else is expecting to catch a throw from her.
You, the coach, are going to have to make the executive decision about who is going to cover the bag at first. Obviously, if the ball is hit to the first baseman, the second baseman should cover. If the ball is hit to the 2B, 1st must cover. If the ball is hit to one of the other fielders, you need to have instructed the girls as to who is going to have primary responsibility for coverage of first. You want your more clutch player to handle this because, if there is just one out, the catch of this throw is very important and, if there are no outs, the girl who catches the second out of the double play is going to have to at least be aware that the runner from second base, who is now on third, may try to score. Having the wrong individual cover the bag at first can still cost you the game even after you record a double play. But most importantly, you w3ant to make sure that everybody gets or stays out of the way.
If you do not assign responsibility, you'll get the out at home and then watch two players fight over who is covering first. If you decide to make the 2B cover first, make sure that your 1B knows that her most important job after the out is recorded at home is to get out of the way of the throw to first. She needs to duck or slide out of the way so the catcher can have a clean lane to first. By the way, the catcher should stride off the plate and make her throw out in fair territory. The person covering first should have her left foot next to or on the bag and her right foot well out in fair ground.
The most important elements of this situation are: predetermined responsibilities, player awareness of what is going on, and repetitious practice of this drill in which all scenarios are discussed and then worked in advance of games. You might start with a five minute discussion of what is happening and why you might have the girls do this. Ladies, bases are loaded with one or no outs. We want the out at home. If we can get it, we'd like the out at first too since the runner probably will not be able to beat it out in some circumstances.
So the play is: 1) infield in, 2) out on a force at home, 3) throw back to first. Work this into your normal infield drilling. This should be as important to your normal routine as field the grounder, check the runner at third, throw to first, then first to home.
After you have worked this into your normal infield practice, add a variation. Talk through the possibility that in addition to getting two, the runner newly arrived at third could possibly try to score. So now it's: field the grounder, throw to home, home to first, and then first back to home.
In addition to the infield being pulled in to nail the runner at home and taking the opportunity to record a second out in those circumstances you can get it, you also want to work the outfield into the conversation. In some late game instances in which you might pull the infield in, you may also want to pull the outfield in. For example, say the score is tied with one or no outs and you worry that this girl might not cooperate by hitting an infield grounder. So you pull your outfield in and instruct them to immediately throw in to home after any catch of a fly or pop (and don't forget to mention foul flys).
The right positioning when bringing the outfield in is probably a matter best handled on the ground. That is, it depends on the speed, abilities and arms of your outfielders. The right position is close enough to catch anything hit beyond your pulled in infielders as well as make a quickly throw to home on a fly - quicker than the girl on third can tag and score. Your outfielders need to understand that anything they catch or field must immediately result in a quick, accurate throw to home. There's no holding the ball and looking around to see who they might be able to throw out. Catch and throw - no thinking.
If you prepare your kids, regardless of age, for the eventual possibility of making a play to hold off a run at home, possibly even making a double play (let's not even contemplate how great it would be to end such an inning on a triple play!), the rewards will be great. Not only might they make such an important play, but also, they'll actually understand your object when you tell them "infield in" or "infield and outfield in." Even if they never pull off a double play, they'll still really understand what is going on. If you pull off a double play and make it look routine, then you will get to bask in the glow when the other team's coach asks you, "how did you get them to do that?" You can say, "the double play? Oh that's a routine play we run in practice all the time."Labels: defense, game strategy
 
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