Question for Texas

[Lefty's Dad]

When looking at Texas tournaments I notice game times listed as 65-75 minutes. How many innings do you get in in that time? Is the reason just to pack in as many games as possible? Is quantity more important that quality? Or are the tournaments loaded with so many teams it is the only way to get all the games in?
For comparison this last weekend at the Surf City Tournament(SoCal) games were 1:30 no new inning. We are able to get in 5-7 innings so the games are a bit more realistic. There is a friendly coming up with 1:45 or 7innings.
Just curious on your take.

Obviously the quality of the play on the field will determine how many innings there will be in that 1:15 (bracket play usually). Most though I would say usually last 5 innings or so. We only have 4 fields at our park so we are limited in that aspect. In addition, we have tried (and sometimes still try) to have longer games but we end up getting so many complaints from teams that have to play late on Saturday, then early on Sunday or a championship game at 9 pm on Sunday night. Especially when the team has travelled from Lousiana which happens every so often. For us, I think it's simply due to the number of fields we can use. For a park close to us that has 9 fields, they draw a lot of teams and for them I tend to think it's because they have too many teams to do it. What irritates me is one recent tournament we were in, the schedule got so messed up that they pushed the pool games to UNDER AN HOUR! Some teams didn't even get through their lineup once, that was ridiculous. We rarely have friendly's here, they are almost always full tournaments.

[EVR585]

For the most part your second assumption is correct. Our more established TD's generally attract a large number of teams and to accomodate those numbers the games are generally limited to the times you have referenced. Other TD's have just looked at the times as the norm and have stayed with what they have seen. Occasionally we will have a 1:30 time limit and even a friendly with 7 innings, but those are few and far between.

We generally look for those "friendlies" and monitor the competition signing up. If the teams are quality then we jump in to play the 7 innings. I personally like that format better. I believe it prepares the girls for the national tournaments, especially your pitchers. I think alot of our coaches would prefer to play the 7 innings or longer game times, but that has yet to be effectively communicated with our area TD's.

I do not know about Cali, but here in Texas the tournaments are fundraisers for the host team. So as you can imagine, the more teams entered the better. We may evolve, but it may take some time and some dialogue with what we (coaches) want in a tournament.

[DonnieS]

Typically the tournaments are no new innings can start after 70 minutes. In a team with good pitchers on both sides ( or bad hitters), we will get up to 6 innings, but the average is around 4 innings. I prefer a 7 inning game , well when I have all 4 pitchers, I prefer a 7 inning game.

Honestly, its been that way since we started playing.

[wadeintothem]

1:30 is too long for the average tourney...

Lordie.

1:20 is ok..

1:15 drop dead is my favorite.

[DonnieS]

>> 1:15 drop dead is my favorite. <<

You are not serious about drop dead for a bracket game?

[Demonboy]

Donnie,

He gets paid by the game. Of course he's serious.

[DonnieS]

>> Donnie, He gets paid by the game. Of course he's serious. <<

How would you do a drop-dead bracket game, roll back the score to the last full inning?

[Demonboy]

Yeah. So when the home team comes up to bat, they just stall and let time expire to get the "win".

[jofus]

Or, ask to get the ball dried off after every pitch or 2, even though it is at most a light drizzle....

We lost a 2-inning game like that last year, drop dead with 75 minute games.

We were losing after 2 something like 7-2 (a few errors from nerves the first inning ), held them 3 up-3 down in the top of the third, and had the score 7-5 with bases loaded and one out and the top of our order up when the ump called time, go back to the last full inning (the 2nd). I bet our at bat lasted over 20 minutes that inning before time ran out, and over half the time was spent by the ump letting their pitcher throw the ball to their coach to get it dried off

Drop-dead is not a good way to run things IMHO...if you are that pressed for time, then you let too many teams into the tournament for the number of fields that you have. We didn't have a game that tournament that made it through the 4th inning.

[sportzjunky]

my fav is the coach who asks for a catcher change with a couple minutes after the first out during pool play.... watched 14U Invasion do it to a very unhappy Mizuno Pride 94 team in the 07 Xmas bash by the Lakewood Ladies...