Hall sport (IMS)

• Walkover score is 18-0.
• Tournament Rules
  • All games will be played under British Softball Federation (BSF) rules
  • Games will be co-ed and played with 5 Males & 5 Females, failure to have a side of 5 & 5 will mean playing with 9 players and an automatic out each time the 10th player is scheduled to bat.
  • All decisions of the umpires will be final, umpires are being provided by the AU club as volunteers and are not there to abused
  • Games in the group stage will be 45 Minutes long with no new innings declared after 37 minutes
  • In the group stage if no new innings have been declared and the home team is leading the bottom half of the innings shall still be played for the purpose of tie-breakers. This innings will continue until either the side is retired, or the game time expires, whichever occurs first.
  • In the event of an innings not been completed when the game time expires then the result of the game shall be taken as the last completed innings
  • There may be situations which occur during the play of the game that are not listed in this document as it is a simplified version of the rules to give a basic understanding of the game for a player of non/limited experience of the game, if this happens trust that the umpires are making the correct decision in accordance to the BSF rules.

Basic Game Rules

• Games will be played with 5 Male & 5 Females
• An innings ends when either 3 players of the batting side have been retired, or a mercy rule is applied
• A mercy rule shall be applied is the batting team scores 7 runs in the innings, except for the final innings which will have an unlimited run limit. At the umpires’ discretion if the umpire believes that the top of an innings will be the top of the last inning of the game they will declare the mercy rule is no longer in effect.
• A runner can not legally leave a base on a caught ball until a catch is taken, once a catch is taken the runners are free to advance at their own risk.

Retiring A Member of the batting side

• A batter/runner can be retired in several ways these are:

1. The batter strikes out. A strike is a pitch that passes through the legal strike zone, a pitch that is swung and missed by the batter or a ball that is declared foul
2. The batter hits a ball that is caught by a member of the fielding team before it touches the ground, except for balls caught in foul territory where the ball must go above 6ft before it can be caught to retire a batter
3. A batter is tagged while in between bases
4. Force-out, a runner loses the right to the base which he is occupying because the batter becomes a batter-runner, and the ball is thrown to a player of the defensive team who is in contact with the next base in front of the forced runner
5. A batter/run interferes with fielder from fielding the ball
6. A runner shall be declared out if he contacts with a batted ball before it is touched by a member of the defensive side while not legally in contact with a base.
7. A runner shall be declared out if he deliberately makes an attempt to divert the path of a ball
8. If a player illegally leaves a base on caught ball and the ball is thrown to a member of the defence who is in contact with the base the runner has illegally left before the runner returns to the base he left illegally
9. A runner leaves the base path to avoid a tag from a member of the defence

Base Running

• Base runners must stand on the base until the ball is hit. It is important that base runners touch every base with their foot while running around the bases. If the other team notices you missed a base and the umpire also saw it, you can be called out.

Balls & Strikes

• A strike is legal pitch is a pitch that arcs above 6ft but no higher than 12ft and passes over some part of home plate between the batters’ shoulders and knee caps.
• A ball is a pitch that is not swung at by the batter and does not pass through the strike zone
• 4 balls before a batter is retired constitutes a walk & 3 strikes constitutes a strike out. For a walk, and the batter will be awarded 1 base.
• A strike shall be called for a ball that is not hit into fair territory and you can be out for a ball hit into foul territory on strike 2.

Fair Territory/Fair Balls

• A fair ball is a legally batted ball which

1. Settles or is touched on or over fair territory between home and first base or between home and third base.
2. Bounds past first or third base on or over fair territory, regardless of where the ball hits after going over the base.
3. Touches first, second or third base.
4. While on or over fair territory touches the person or clothing of an umpire or player.
5. First falls on fair territory beyond first and third base.
6. While over fair territory, passes out of the playing field beyond the outfield fence.

Tagging

• To successfully a run a fielder must have control of the ball and touch any part of the runner with hand/glove that ball is held in and must retain possession of the ball through the process of the tag.
• A batter being tagged is not entitled to deliberately attempt to dislodge the ball from a defender’s hand/glove in an attempt to avoid being tagged. If this happened the runner shall be declared out, and if necessary the batter-runner may be declared out if the act of the runner prevented the batter-runner from being thrown out.

Blocking a runner

• A fielder is not allowed to block the progress of a runner towards a base without possession of the ball or in being in the act of fielding a ball
• If a fielder blocks a runner from advancing in accordance to the rule above, then the umpire shall signal with an arm extended horizontally from the body and the runner will be awarded the base they were running towards at the point of being obstructed.
• It is very important that catchers give base runners a clear path to the home plate to avoid collisions at the plate as these can be very dangerous.
• If as a base runner you are obstructed, please try to avoid initiating contact with the fielders to avoid injuries

Notes

• All bases much be touched, if a base is not touched and the defensive team makes an appeal to the umpire then the runner shall be declared out.
• With the exception of 1st base, you can not over run a base, if a runner over runs a base they can be tagged out by a member of the defensive team.
• A run is scored when a runner successfully crosses home plate after touching all other bases without being retired
• Ground rules will be explained to team captains and/or sport secs at the beginning of each session of games
• If there is any attempt to exploit loop holes in the rules teams shall be first warned and then an appropriate punishment will be applied to the team if the team continues.
• For the game there will be two types of balls, males will play with the 12” Ball and females will play with the 11” Ball.

Tie Breakers

If there is a tie in the groups, then the tie-breakers will be as follows

1. Head to Head Result
2. Mercy Rules Scored
3. Runs Scored
4. Runs Conceded
5. Biggest run difference in a single game