This article was first published on www.britishbaseball.org
BBF Southern youth teams will be taking part in tournaments this Saturday and Sunday to determine the Conference’s qualifiers for the National Youth Baseball Championships, to be played on September 18-19 at Halton.
BRONCO QUALIFIERS
On Saturday, September 11 at Finsbury Park in London, four Bronco teams will play off to fill two berths at the National Championships. In Game 1, Forest Glade Redbacks, the #2 seed, will face #1 ranked London Mets and the winner will qualify as the Southern Conference #1 seed.
Game 2 will be between the #3 and #4 seeds, Herts All Stars and Bracknell Bronco, and the winner of that game will play the loser of Game 1 to decide the second qualifier for the National Youth Baseball Championships.
Game 4 will be a consolation game for the losers of Game 2, who will play the qualifier from Game 1.
The tournament will take place on two fields and will start at 11.00 am.
PONY QUALIFIERS
SATURDAY
A three-way Pony tournament will be hosted by the Essex Redbacks at Chelmsford on Saturday to decide one Conference qualifier for the Pony NYBC. In Game 1, Conference #5 seed Essex Redbacks will take on #3 seed London Mets and the loser of that game will face #2 seed Horsham Hornets. The final game will see the Hornets take on the winners of Game 1. If one team wins both its games they will qualify for the Youth Championships. If all three teams win one game each, then average runs conceded per inning played will be the factor in deciding the qualifying team.
The tournament will begin at 10am.
SUNDAY
On Sunday, the Pony playoffs will be completed at ACS Cobham where the hosting #1 seed Cobham Cougars will play #4 seed Bracknell Tornadoes in a doubleheader starting at noon to decide the second Southern Conference Pony qualifying place. If the doubleheader is split, a sudden death, single-inning game (extended if the score is tied) will be used to determine the winner.
PITCHING AND RUN RESTRICTIONS
Pitching at the tournaments will be controlled by the same restrictions used in Little League.
If a pitcher throws more than 20 pitches in a game they cannot pitch again in a subsequent game. Pitchers are also limited on pitch-count depending on their age: 9-10-year-olds can throw 75 pitches maximum, 11-13-year-olds 85 pitches and 15-16 year olds 95 pitches. If a pitcher hits his pitch count during an at-bat, he is permitted to complete the at-bat. After consultation with Conference teams, the rule that restricts a team to scoring a maximum of five runs per inning will not be used during the playoff tournaments. However, mercy rules — 20 runs after 4 innings (or 3-1/2 if the home team leads) and 15 after 5 (or 4-1/2 if the home team leads) — will be in place.