Indoor Softball Rules
All teams must field a defensive team of 5 men and 3 women OR 4 men and 3 women. There are NO restrictions on where players are to be positioned apart from one at catcher (positioned behind the batter) and one as pitcher who must stand and pitch from the pitching plate. Additional players can be added to the batting line-up as long as there are no more than 2 male batters batting in a row.
Games will be 24 minutes, two innings of 12 minutes each where a team will both bat for 6 minutes and field for 6 minutes. Try and ensure a quick turnaround to keep the schedule running smoothly. Home team will be first team listed on the schedule. The scorer/timekeeper will announce to the umpire the last 30 seconds of a batting cycle and also the last batter.
All are allowed, and encouraged.
The side nets are live, and any ball caught off the net (without first touching the ground) is an out.
If a ball is hit through the net and passes outside the court a dead ball shall be called and a single is awarded to the batter. If a force is in play other base runners shall advance one base. If no force, no advancement.
There will be a line or marking to designate the area that is live going forward and dead going back. In the event of a live ball going dead the umpire will call “Dead Ball” all runners will take the base they were running too, if a runner was on a base and not moving they will not be awarded an additional base.
NO sliding allowed, any slide is an automatic out and will result in minus 2 points.
During the game, please ensure that bats are retrieved quickly. It is a fast paced game and we don’t want anyone running for home and getting injured on a bat. The next to bat is responsible for collecting the bat.
- Only One pitch (must have an arc). A ball – gets a walk to first and 1 point (any runner forced home on a walk also scores 1 point).
- Points are obtained by the batter getting to 1st ,2nd ,3rd ,4th/Home bases depending on the base they reach on the hit, one point for every base. Plus one point is also awarded for any player crossing home plate.
- When a batter hits the ball and gets to e.g. 2nd base and goes for 3rd but gets tagged out, the scoring of this is plus 2 (for reaching 2nd) minus 1 for the out
- A missed strike is minus 1 point.
- Minus 1 point for any forced out or any tag out.
- A hit off the roof is a dead ball, batter out and minus 1 point.
- A hit ball that gets you safely on base gets you 1 point for 1st base, 2 points for 2nd base, 3 points for 3rd base, and 4 points if you get all the way home.
- Any batted ball caught off the back wall is an out for the batter and scores -1 point, (player note – it is a live ball until time is called so players on the bases can run – if they are brave enough!).
- A hit ball off the back wall below the line and not caught is a 5 point home run plus 1 point for every runner on base. Runners can just leave bases and return to batting line no need to run all the way around when a home run of this nature is scored.
- A hit ball off the back wall above the line and not caught is a live ball.
- A foul tip/ball which rolls behind home plate/the dead ball line without first touching the side walls/netting is minus 1 point.
