Follow up - Top of the 7th. Score tied. Runners on 1st and 3rd. No one out. You're the home team coach. (LONG BUT WORTHWHILE)

[_MIA_]

Situation aside, no I'm not sending the runner.

Right. So to summarize. Defense screwed up by even bothering to throw home. Kid on third seemed to do the correct thing initially by drawing a throw (even though you cannot see if she actually faked going home). Kid on second then screwed up by getting caught too far off the bag and then the kid on third screwed up by even taking a chance at trying to score in that situation after the kid on second was caught. You don't take chances when down by 3 runs in the last inning. The worst case scenario for the offense in that situation should have been runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Best case scenario should have been the defense makes a wild throw to a base (home or third) and you end up scoring a run with a girl on third.

 

[fuzzy2651]

As wrong as things went for the team on offense, just as much could have gone wrong for the team in the field. They made perfect throws and made the plays. One overthrow or bobbled ball and that whole play doesn't happen.

 

[_MIA_]

As wrong as things went for the team on offense, just as much could have gone wrong for the team in the field. They made perfect throws and made the plays. One overthrow or bobbled ball and that whole play doesn't happen.

Yup. Like I said, they actually benefited from making the wrong play initially but then after that they executed perfectly. Forcing the defensive team to throw the ball all over the place works sometimes as a strategy at the 10U/12U level but you cannot use that as a strategy as you move up in age/skill level. That is why I hate seeing lower level coaches use incorrect situational coaching even though it might work out at that age level..at some point it won't work and the players need to know what the correct play is (do you think base coaches at the MLB level would have told the runners to fake going in order to draw a throw? No, they would just know that is the correct play in that situation)

 

[sluggers]

And then this happened.

I have no words.

Bill Ressler, the coach featured in the movie "Heart of the Game", said:

One of the things really that makes coaching fun is when you tell teenagers "Go do 'ABC'", and they'll look at you and say "Yes, we're going to go do 'ABC'", and they're excited about "ABC", and five seconds later you watch them do "XYZ", and sometimes I'll ask them "Why did you do 'XYZ'?" and they never have an answer. They always look at you like, "Why would you ask a question like that?"

 

[Indiana Gators South]

So this wasn't just a hypothetical, and this post will out me a little bit, so bear with me.

My daughter was playing in the 4A division of the state championship in Georgia this week. The format is the top eight teams go to Columbus and play in the Olympic softball facility - a neutral field. Those eight play a double-elimination tournament over three days. If you lose, you get shifted down to the loser's bracket and play until you lose again.

Daughter's team played their way through the very bottom of the loser's bracket. Most of the games were close - decided by four runs or less. We won one game in the tenth inning (GA uses runner-on-2nd ITB after the 9th inning). That game put us back in front of the team that sent us into the loser's bracket, and we destroyed them 9-1 - batted around the inning in the first. We win one more game, and that sends us to the championship. We have to play the team coming out of the "winner's" side of the bracket,and to win, we have to win two games.

Girls played beautifully. As the sixth inning ended, it was starting to rain, but we were leading 3-2, and we were the home team. Three more outs, and we start Game 2. But the rain was getting worse, and the radar showed it wasn't stopping anytime soon. The umpires were obviously on marching orders to get the games in, and they waited too long to suspend the game IMO. Pitcher couldn't grip the ball. Balls were being thrown well short of home plate. When they finally stopped the game, it was (you guessed it) Top of the 7th. Score tied. Runners on 1st and 3rd. No one out.

As you've seen elsewhere here, the GHSA decided that they would resume the games on Monday afternoon, but not at a neutral field - it wold be at the field of the team coming out of the winner's bracket. And rather than adopting the GHSA baseball rule (game over after six complete innings - and that's for a 9-inning game), they decide that all games will resume where they left off.

So my daughter's team left school early to drive two hours to the home field of the other school. I'd guess 70% of their student body was there. It was a shirt show. Passed ball - runner on first advances to 2nd (hard to type that - my daughter is the catcher). Passed ball, runner on third scores and runner on 2nd goes to third. Two missed pop-ups in foul territory (neither was easy). Then one of our middle infielders misses a routine play. By the time the inning was over, we're losing 6-3 and their crowd is going crazy. But we still get to bat, and we have our 9, 1, & 2 batters coming up.

So things start off shaky. Leadoff hits an infield fly, but reaches when the 2nd base drops it. 2nd batter (actually the #1 batter in the lineup) also reaches on an error - this one sharply hit to their second baseman who drops it and can't find it. Runners on 2nd and 3rd - no outs. No. 2 batter at plate, and No. 3 and 4 batters - both powers hitters with serious HR potential are waiting on deck and in the hole. I feel great about this situation, and honestly think we're gonna get to play the second game.

And then this happened.

I have no words.

Omg????

 

[CrazyNani]

I agree that the base running was bad, but what makes you think the coaching was bad? You're assuming that he didn't tell the runners to hold, and I'm not sure of that. It was very very loud, and this coach has been coaching this team for over 20 years and this is in state finals after they had won five in a row against five of the best teams in the state. The other coach actually visited the circle right before this play, and I would like to know what our coach told his base-runners at the time. I don't see how it could be anything other than "Neither of your runs count in we don't get one more across the plate."

Seeing this a few years late but, wouldn't the 3rd base runner tag up on that deep ball? Who would have expected that throw. Runner goes back to 3rd. 2nd base runner should have been well back by then. But why, why would 3rd base take off again? Big hitters coming up?

 

[Cagman]

Looks like a shallow fly ball to right field, I would not have sent her. She gets that ball to home in under 3 seconds and it looks like a good throw. The runner on 2nd made the fatal flaw. Meaningless runners, play it safe and wait for a hit. Have to know the situation.

Why wouldn’t the RF have thrown it home? Nothing to lose provides she doesn’t fire it over the backstop.