3-PTICH FOR MD TOURNAMENT RULES

1. Time Limit: Round Robin and Final games will be 1 hour and 30 minutes or 7 innings. No new inning will start after 1hr and 20 min. Win = 2pts, tie = 1 pt, loss = 0 pts.

2. If an inning is in progress at 1 hr and 20min it will be considered the last inning of play. If the home team is at bat, they will only continue to bat until they are ahead by one run, or until they have reached the maximum of 10 batters per inning rule in the attempt to win or to catch up. If the visiting team is at bat, and they are already ahead by more than 10 runs they can continue to bat as per the inning mercy since the differential is applied. The winner of the flip decides accordingly if they wish to be home team or visiting.

3. Inning Mercy: 10 batters will be allowed to bat per half inning of play. If less than 2 outs the ball must be thrown to home to stop any more runners from scoring. If there are 2 outs, the defensive team can make an out or throw it home to end the inning.

4. Scoring: Runners must not touch home plate to score a run (will be called out); the defensive player with the ball, must touch home plate before the runner crosses the home plate path/line (will be called safe if the runner is touched after he crosses the commitment line). A runner that crosses the commitment line can not return.

5. Pitching: A pitcher will pitch to his or her own team from within the pitching circle. Each at bat will consist of no more than 3 pitches. When it is the pitcher’s turn to bat, he/she cannot return to the pitching position until he/she has completed his/her turn at bat, including base running.

6. If the offensive pitcher touches or is touched by the batted ball, the play will be considered dead and the play will cease and runners will return to the base they were at before the pitch. The pitch will count as one of the three allotted pitches.

7. Offence (Batting): In order to reach a base, the batter must hit a fair ball without legally being put out. Strikeouts will only occur when a batter fails to hit a fair ball within the 3 pitch limit.

8. The batting order will alternate either male than female, or female than male. If a team fails to have 4 female batters, the 4^th female batter will be an automatic out. Each team will keep track of their score and the number of homeruns they have, and inform the umpire after the end of each half inning. The ump will then report it to the other team.

9. Homerun Rule = Match + 2: A team will be allowed to score an over the fence homerun to a maximum of 2 more than the other team. A homerun after this point will be considered a strike. Any homerun will be a $2 fine to MD.

10. Offence (Running): Courtesy runners (the last available batter of the same gender) are permitted from first base.

11. Base stealing is not allowed. Runners may leave the base when the batter makes contact with the ball. An anticipatory step is allowed if the batter swings and misses the ball.

12. Defence: On defence the team will field 10 players, one that will be considered the rover in the outfield grass area. The defensive pitcher must be in the pitching circle at the time of the pitch. If present, there must be at least 4 females on defence. If only 3 females, the females must not play in the catcher’s position. If less than 3 females – a team will lose by default.

13. Time will be called after a hit and/or a play when,

1) the ump feels that the ball has made its way to the infielder to stop the advancement of a runner, or

2) the ump feels that the ball is on its way to the pitcher to prevent any further advancement of the runners, or

3) the ump feels that the play is over.

14. No grievances or protests will be considered. The game is meant to be for fun and to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy.

15. Top team in each pool will advance to the final game: Tie breaking rules: 1) head to head 2) least runs scored against 3) highest run differential 4) flip of a coin.