College Softball Needs Change

Okay every now and then something in sports comes to my attention and I just have to scratch my head because it doesn't make sense. Lately I have watched a little bit of the Women's College World Series for softball and, while the games usually are close and go down to the wire, I can NOT stand the field dimensions those girls are playing on. With fences that measure 200 feet and bases that are only 60 feet apart, the game is either going to be a slugfest or a strikeoutfest. I've watched the World Series for a few years now and every year it is the same story and the NCAA needs to do something about it to better the game.

When boys, and girls for that matter, are nine years old they are playing on fields with 200 foot fences and 60 foot bases and these girls who are in college play on the same size fields. That is absolutely ridiculous to me. There is no such thing as a triple in college softball because with a field that small who could scamper all the way around the bases before the throw comes in? On the other hand, the bases are so short that sometimes these slap hitters place a ball perfectly on the infield and beat the throw. If the field were bigger they would surely be thrown out but it takes maybe 15 steps to get to first!

However, the main problem is the distance of the mound. The mound is so close and these pitchers throw at speeds in the 60s which means the ball is to home in the blink of an eye. As a result there are numerous strikeouts every game and also several groundouts. If the mound were moved back a few feet it would do two things: make the game safer for the pitchers and help the scoring. As I sit here typing this I am watching Game 1 of the Final between Arizona State and Florida. ASU took a 7-0 lead after two and they did it by the home run and a few extra base hits off the wall. The game is so predictable you could probably guess what will happen before it starts.

At the beginning of the tournament Baylor and Missouri played 13 innings before Baylor won by a walkoff home run. That was the only run of the game! Missouri only managed two hits in the whole contest and one run was all the two teams could muster in 13 innings. I'm all for the occassional pitchers' duel but that is outrageous. In my mind, that happens all too often and the NCAA has to do something to make the game more like baseball. It seems that softball is all or nothing. There's either an abundance of strikeouts or it is a slugfest to see who can hit the most home runs. That's not real baseball to me.

If I were the head of softball for a day I would take the approach that Little League has taken with their field dimensions. Move the fence back 25 feet so that it is 225 all the way around. That is a reasonable distance because players could still hit home runs but it opens up the outfield a bit more which allows runners to go from first to third more often and there could be more extra base hits. Along with that I would say move the bases back to 75 feet. This would mean more stolen bases because second is further from the plate and fielders would also have a legitimate chance to throw out a runner. Last but not least, the mound needs to be pushed back to 50'6" which is ten feet closer then a Major League mound. That allows hitters to have more time to read a pitch and it is safer for the pitchers.

Those changes may sound very offensive minded but they would help a pitcher greatly. A farther fence means less home runs. Further bases mean more time for fielders to gather and throw across the diamond and a mound at 50'6" gives the pitchers' ball more time to do it's action. A rise ball can rise more and the ball can naturally tail more if it is given time. That would make it trickier for the hitters. That said, there would also be many benefits for the hitters. Altogether, I think those moves would be very beneficial for the game of college softball and the games would be more interesting. Don't get me wrong, I think that these games can be entertaining but it's not the ideal way to play the game. Sometimes change is good and I think this is a game that could use some change.