Softball and Rain in the North East

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Jun 18, 2023
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It actually turned out to be a rather nice day so far. I live pretty close to where NE Finest is held. DDs former college team has a double header today with the brand new coach and she asked me to pick her up at school & bring her and the dog since she still has friends on the team despite being old & washed up, hoping tfe weather holds.
It's coming then. It's been rainy all day in NJ. softball canceled, field soaked. we played 1st grade soccer with about 40% attendance and all got drenched.
 
Jan 22, 2011
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As I suspected, an 82pct eclipse didn't cause a delay due to darkness.

A coach got a little chippy during the eclipse during a 10u fall ball game, but their last two pool play games they were fine. I'll blame the eclipse.

The unhappy coach won their game by 9 runs.

A single umpire, a high school senior baseball player, has probably umpired 25 to 30 softball games. Plays of concern:

1) Walk with a runner on third. The defensive coach called time because he wanted to change pitchers while the batter-runner was running to first. The umpire grants time, and the runner continues to second. The umpire makes a mistake and sends the runner back to first. I corrected him after the game, but it's a 10u fall ball pool play game. The next pitch is fouled off; on the second pitch, the runner is on second. When I coached, I always gave a lot of slack to umpires, obviously under 30. Need to encourage young umpires to stick around.

2) Swinging bunt, when the batter drops the bat, it hits the bunted ball. The umpire calls the batter-runner out. 3B kept insisting that wasn't an out.

3) The same coach complained that the single umpire was missing a girl leaving early from 3B. Unless a girl leaves a couple of steps early, it is hard for a single blue to see it. A coach needs to ask the umpire to watch for it politely. Most umpires will say they'll keep an eye out for it, but it is hard to see with a single umpire and call balls and strikes.
 
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