Avon Grove Area Little League: Softball - Minors
Softball Minors Division
Minors Division:
The Minor Division consists mainly of 9 and 10 year olds. 8 year olds are permitted to tryout for the Minors. They will make it based on there tryout score and also if they get “drafted”. The less experienced 11 year olds are also permitted to play in the Minors. As with the 8’s, the 11 year olds score at the Majors tryout will determine if they will play in Majors or be assigned to the Minor Division.
This is still a developmental division. All girls are encouraged to try all positions, however if the manager feels they are not ready for certain positions due to safety concerns (playing first base when they have not mastered catching the ball), it is more important that they play positions where the risk of injury is less and also where they can excel to help build there confidence.
Minors play with an 11” ball and with the pitchers mound 35 feet from home plate. The first half of the season there are no walks. When a batter reaches 4 balls, the coach comes in and finishes pitching to the batter until either the batter puts the ball in play or strikes out. A coach can’t walk a batter. A continuous batting order is used. Innings end when the defense gets 3 outs or the offense scores a predetermined number of runs (usually 4 or 5). Steals are permitted at this level, but are limited to certain bases and also limited to number of times per inning. You are not permitted to advance on an overthrow to a base in the first half of play. This is to encourage the fielders to “try and make a play” at the base.
In the second half of the season just about all restrictions are lifted. There are unlimited steals and advancing on overthrows is allowed. You still go by limited number of runs per inning. The pitcher can only walk 3 batters per inning. After 3, the coach comes in and finishes the at bat to anyone that gets 4 balls. Each time the coach comes in to pitch, the pitcher will still pitch to the next batter.
You can expect to start practices in the 3rd week of March, having 2-3 per week. Games will start to be played the first week of April. You may have one or two practices per week once the season starts depending on how many games your team has that week. Typically you will have one game during the week, most likely at the complex against another AG team or traveling to Oxford or Kennett. Expect to play a game every Saturday either at home or against one of the other teams in our District. Some places you may travel to are: Twin Valley, West Bradford, West Side, or Caln. All fields are within 45 minutes.
The season wraps up before Memorial Day weekend, but there is a District 28 round robin playoff called “June Madness” after the holiday weekend. It is very similar to “March Madness” for NCAA basketball. All regular season teams in the District participate in this single elimination playoff. The winner at the end is crowned the Minors Champion of District 28. This playoff is done before school let’s out. This “playoff” is not to be confused with Tournament Play, which will be explained in another section.
