Softball Vs. Baseball

Softball is a variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. It is a sport generally played during the spring. It is a very competitive sport with nine players on the field at all times in high school. There are three outfields and 6 infielders, third, second and first baseman, shortstop, catcher and pitcher. The pitchers mound from the plate is forty-three feet apart, which doesn’t seem far unless you are on the mound pitching. Pitchers pitch underhand, called the “wind-up”. All ways of pitching is in the same motion doing different things with your hand or holding the ball. A change-up is a slow version of the fastball, making it tricky for the hitter, because they get thrown off by the speed. The windup is still as fast, but the way the ball is held is different from the fastball. The fastball is held with the fingers on the seams, on the ‘C’ part of the ball. Change ups can be thrown in different ways. Each pitcher has their own way of holding the ball. One way is to hold the ball like a fastball on the ‘C’ seam, but folding the first two fingers underneath and pushing the ball off the hip when the arm comes around.

Hitting situations can be confusing. There can be a designated hitter for someone playing the field, but the person that hits for the fielder can’t be put into the game unless the person gets hurt or they need to be changed out. There are usually nine batters, unless the opponent agrees to bat ten batters. Along with hitting, there are different signs for the batters to either get the runner to steal and distract the catcher so the person on the bases can steal. That is called a fake bunt. A bunt is where the batter turns their body toward the pitcher holding their bat out to try and tap the ball a little in front of the catcher. It isn’t a very easy thing to do because the ball tends to go foul a lot when the bat head isn’t up in the perfect spot to get the bunt down. All of these things talked about in softball relate to baseball.

Baseball is almost the same as softball, just more difficult in a way. Baseball has the same amount of players on the field but the mound to home plate is sixty feet six inches away. Pitchers motion is different in baseball, to make the game different. The ball is thrown overhand, which isn’t a motion the body can handle when throwing something so small, so far away with a lot of force. Baseball teams needs a few pitchers because they can’t go through a whole game pitching with the same pitcher, they could throw out their arm. The pitchers have to have three days of rest if they pitch 4 innings. When hitting in baseball, its about the same as softball, they still have bunting. It is a lot harder for the pitcher or catcher to get the ball if the ball is half way from the catcher and pitcher. It gives the hitter a lot more space to land the ball, making it better on the batter sometimes. There are more home runs in baseball because the small ball goes a lot farther, thats why the field is so much bigger, also gives the outfielders something to do. The base paths are also farther away, they are ninety feet apart. Everything in baseball is bigger besides the ball.

All these different things between the two sports are what make them competitive. Boys don’t play softball and girls don’t play baseball. They are different for a reason. Some guys may say that softball is easy because we can hit a bigger ball, but it isn’t really. Girls have to use a lot of force to hit the ball because it’s so big and it doesn’t go that far. There are a lot of differences making both sports fun to play.