Baseball Coaching Question...

[Bullaholic]

Ok, baseball coaches--here ya go...

You are coach of Team A. Team A pitcher is on the mound ready to deliver a pitch. Team B has runners on 1st and 3rd with (1) out. Team B sends runners halfway to 2nd and home before the pitch is delivered. What play do you instruct your Team A pitcher to make?

This happens a lot in 13U ball.

[Rabid Cougar]

Generally you send the runner at 1st , having him WALK towards second and stop halfway. When the pitcher steps off and reacts to the runner from first, then you send the runner at 3rd down the line 1/4 of the way. There is a way to combat it which is just as devious.

If the runner at 3rd does it first or at the same time, that is simple; pitcher steps of and runs toward the runner at 3rd.

I absolutely hated this situation when I was coaching this age group, specially with pitchers brand new to open bases.

[bp80884]

Generally you send the runner at 1st , having him WALK towards second and stop halfway. When the pitcher steps off and reacts to the runner from first, then you send the runner at 3rd down the line 1/4 of the way. There is a way to combat it which is just as devious.

If the runner at 3rd does it first or at the same time, that is simple; pitcher steps of and runs toward the runner at 3rd.

I absolutely hated this situation when I was coaching this age group, specially with pitchers brand new to open bases.


Yep, I hated these situations. We were probably involved in some of the same plays in China Spring Little League!

Go Cougs!

[VWG]

Ok, baseball coaches--here ya go...

You are coach of Team A. Team A pitcher is on the mound ready to deliver a pitch. Team B has runners on 1st and 3rd with (1) out. Team B sends runners halfway to 2nd and home before the pitch is delivered. What play do you instruct your Team A pitcher to make?

This happens a lot in 13U ball.

You left some details out.
What's the inning and are you up by 3-4 runs or more? I would trade the out for a run.
What part of their lineup are you at?

In most cases, pitcher steps off and if the runners are halfway as you said, then we have a rundown situation. Get the out on the lead runner.
If runner on 1st breaks first, then again, do you trade the run for the out? Clear the bases with 2 outs and sac the run? Depends on where you're at in the game.

[Bullaholic]

No doubt your analysis is correct, VWG. I left out those details as I was lazy and I didn't want to have to type all the scenarios, hoping that I would get lots of discussion on the various scenarios. Thanks to all for the responses so far.

[XMan]

My answer is step, check, pinch. Pitcher steps off, checks runner at third. If runner is off too far, throw to catcher or run at him depending on how far off he is. If he is close to base, pitcher freezes him and turns toward 2nd base. 2nd baseman runs into the baseline between 1st and 2nd to "cut the distance" while the ss takes 2nd base. 1st baseman trails runner going to 2nd. Pitchers throws to either 2nd baseman or ss. If runner from 3rd decides to go, 3rd sacker makes a "4" call and the player with the ball hoses the runner at the dish. If all goes well, you tag the runner from first quickly and then throw out the runner going to home. You need to work on run downs so that you are good at cutting distance and timing so that you can get outs quickly with only 1 throw.