Just got back from Wappingers Falls, where Ketcham beat John Jay in softball, 1-0, in 10 innings. The game ended via the unusual and rarely seen international tie-breaker. It's like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster: People have heard of it ... they talk about it ... but they never really see it in action.
In almost seven years here at the Journal, it was the first time I'd seen the tie-breaker employed. I'd only seen it once before, working for a newspaper in Vermont, and that time, it decided a state championship. (If nothing else, I'll have a story to tell my kids someday!)
For the uninitiated, like myself, here's the Cliffs Notes version of the international tie-breaker:
If a softball game is tied after 9 innings, each team begins each ensuing inning with a runner placed at second base. That runner is the player who was at-bat last in the previous inning. (Got all that?) The game continues to be played as usual and the teams continue to play until a winner is decided.Huh? Come again?
From the outside, it seems like a tough way to decide a winner. It's like softball's answer to the penalty-kick shootout in soccer!
Still, talking to some of the Indians and Patriots after the game, they had varying opinions.
"Would you want to be out here in the sun for another six hours?!" John Jay coach Bonnie Schilling asked me rhetorically when I asked her about it. "It's put into place so the game can get sped up a little bit because when you have two titans battling like this, it could go all night. ... I think the tie-breaker is good."
Winning pitcher Reba Canning said she was ready to stay on the mound for "the whole thing," no matter how long the game lasted.
Still, Canning said she was non-plussed about the tie-breaker setup.
"I really don't mind because it can go both ways," she said. "Even if we didn't score that run, it's fair, I think, because each team gets it."
Her coach, Scott Saterlee, said today's tie-breaker was his first at Ketcham and admitted it's a rough way to lose a game.
"It's tough," he said. "Today, it worked to our advantage but it very easily couldn't have. I don't like to see it, per se. The rules are the rules, but I'd like to ... I don't know ... "
3 comments:
Just an FYI for those unfamiliar with ITB, which I personally love by the way, the runner who is placed on 2nd does NOT count as an earned run against the pitcher, if she scores.
Thanks for the the info, Riseball! I appreciate it.
Being so new to the whole tie-breaker concept, the more information I can get, the better I can write about the next time it happens.
Thanks again for responding! That's the whole idea behind the blog: To interact with our readers and get as much info as we can.
Keep reading!
-- sean
It is a funny concept. Usually, if teams are good enough to be tied after 9 innings, starting with a runner on 2nd will usually cancel each other out. Good teams can bunt the runner to 3rd and then and get the run across. Then they are still tied. I like the idea, becuase great fastpitch teams can go a long time at a deadlock.
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