9 & 10 YEAR OLD LBL SPECIAL RULES

1.             All players must have reached their 9th, but not their 11th birthday by April 30th of this season.

2.             No player shall sit out more than one inning consecutively except for disciplinary reasons, injury or ejection.

3.             All players will play at least one inning in the infield per game. If a shortened game prevents this, the player will start in the infield the next game. (Coaches who feel players could be in danger, or unsafe to participate in the infield, should notify the age coordinator.)

4.             All regular games will consist of a maximum of six innings. In case of bad weather, light failure, darkness, etc., three innings will constitute a complete game.

5.             All pitchers will be limited to two innings per game (still subject to LBL General Rules for pitching). This will be recorded in the coach's pitching log. Make-up games are included in the week of actual play.

6.             The base distances will be 65 ft., and Pitcher's rubber will be at 46 ft from the back of home plate. (If 9 yr olds are in a separate division, the 9 yr old pitcher's rubber will be at  43 ft and 10 yr olds will be at 46 ft.) 

7.             Stealing is allowed with limited guidelines. Base runners are NOT permitted to steal from 1st base to 2nd base at any time. They may steal 2nd -to- 3rd base and 3rd -to- Home plate, but not leave the base until the ball crosses home plate (or perpendicular to the plate on a wild pitch).

(Runners may advance from 1st base only with a Hit, or on a force caused by a walked batter.)

8.             Bunting is not allowed.

9.             The "Infield Fly Rule" will not be in effect for this age group.

10.           The dropped third strike rule will not be in effect. However, existing base runners may advance within guidelines on stealing.

11.           To avoid prolonged delay of the game, when all reasonable play has ended, the pitcher has possession of the ball and is in the pitcher's mound area, all runners must return to the previous base occupied.

12.           There will be a maximum of 8 runs per inning, regardless of who is winning.

13.           The ten run game ending (mercy) rule will not be in effect for this age group.

14.           Games will be played with a minimum of 8 LBL registered players at all times. If a team starts with only 8 players, there is NO automatic out for what would be the 9th batting position. If a ninth player shows up during the game he will be added to the bottom of the batting order, and the team may have nine players on the field and in the batting order for the remainder of the game.

15.           Umpires will be encouraged to advise players and/or coaches if a batter or catcher is out of position enough to affect normal play, or pose a possible danger to the catcher or batter.

16.           Trying to keep balance between learning to hit and learning to pitch, the strike zone will be from the shoulders through the knees, and any part of the ball traveling over any part of the plate. The coach should explain this rule to players and parents at start of the season.