Fall Finale Format, Game Rules and Tie breakers

Thanks for signing up for the 7th Annual Men’s Fall Finale Tournament!

The HUB softball follows ASA/USA rules in all cases except as noted below. In certain cases where rules differ the HUB rules will take precedent.

Format – Random Round Robin Pool Play. Pool assignments are to be determined by blind draw. A total of 8 teams will advance to the Gold Bracket quarter­final round. The winner from each pool advances to the quarter­final round. One overall Wild Card team will advance to the Gold Bracket quarterfinal round by virtue of lowest runs allowed from the remaining 2nd place teams. 4 Teams will advance to the Silver Bracket by virtue of the fewest runs allowed in Pool Play from the remaining 2nd place teams after all Gold Bracket teams have been determined. They will be ranked #1­-4 based on Fewest Runs Allowed. Home team will be determined by coin toss in all games.

Fields of Play: ­

Barnes Memorial ­- (Eastern Ave & East Street, Dedham. 02026) – Pool A

Ground Rules – Mostly open field all you can get. Balls hit over LF back fence will be a HR. Balls that go through the fence on the ground will be a triple. Balls that hit the field house roof will be a HR. Balls that get caught up in or go through any obstruction in deep left field will be a triple.
Parking – Lot in center field and street parking

Condon Field -­ (184 Bussey St. Dedham, 02026) – Pool B

Ground Rules – Tree lined field in left and right at 250’ home run over trees. Ground-rule double on ground into the trees.
Parking – Parking Lot along the first base line. Room for about 30 cars

Connell Field 1 (93 Enneking Pkwy Boston, MA 02136) – Pool C

Ground Rules – Dimensions 285′ fenced to all fields. Ball over the fence, home run. 3 HR limit on this field.Parking – Small parking lot

Connell Field 2 (59 Cleveland St Hyde Park, MA 021360 – Pool D

Ground Rules – Dimensions 285′ to tree line in right and right center. Ball over tree line, home run. 3 HR limit on this field.

Parking ­ Street Parking

Ross 1 – (22 Reddy Ave, Hyde Park, MA 02136) – Pool E
Ground Rules – Open field all you can get.
Parking ­ Street Parking

Ross 2 -­ (160 Westminster St, Hyde Park. MA 02136) ­- Pool F

Ground Rules – Open field all you can get.
Parking – Street Parking along Westminster St. or in Reddy St. lot at opposite end of the park.


Billings Field – (48 LaGrange Street, West Roxbury, MA 02132) – Pool G
Ground Rules – Open field all you can get.

Parking ­- Street Parking

Order of Gold Championship Play

***Times are subject to change if games run late

Quarter­final Round @: Ross Field 1 & 2, Barnes Memorial Field, & Billings.

Game A: Winner of Ross 1 vs. Winner of Ross 2  at Ross 1 ­ 3:30 PM

Game B: Winner of Connell 1  vs. Winner of Connell 2 at Connell 1 ­ 3:30 PM

Game C: Winner of Barnes vs. Winner of Condon at Barnes 3:30 PM

Game D: Winner of Billings vs, Wild Card at Billings ­ 3:30 PM

Semi­final Round @ Barnes Memorial Field

Teams will be seeded 1 through 4 based on overall runs against for the entire day
Game E: 1 Seed  vs. 4 Seed 5:00 PM

Game F: 2 Seed vs. 3 Seed  6:00 PM

Gold Championship ­@ Barnes Memorial Field

Game G: Winner of Game E v Winner of Game F 7:30 PM

Order of Silver Championship Play

***Times are subject to change if games run late

Semi­final Round @ Condon Field

Teams will be seeded 1 through 4 based on overall runs against for the entire day
Game A: 1 Seed  vs. 4 Seed 3:30 PM

Game B: 2 Seed vs. 3 Seed  4:30 PM

Silver Championship ­@ Condon Field

Game G: Winner of Game A v Winner of Game B 6:00 PM


Uniforms ­- All players are required to wear matching jerseys or team shirts.

Home Team ­- Home team will be determined by a coin toss at the start of the game throughout the tournament

Game and Start of play ­– Regulation games are 60 minutes and 7 innings long, however all games will be played to completion. Extra innings will be played to prevent a tie. If a game goes beyond the 7th inning the format will switch to a one pitch format with the last batter retired from the previous inning starting the inning at 2nd base.

Umpires ­– Umpires are certified ASA umpires. Umpire fees are included. There will be one umpire provided for Pool Play and Quarterfinal rounds, and 2 umpires provided for Semifinal and Championship Rounds. Umpires will review the ground rules with the team captains prior to the start of play. Do not harass the umpires. Harassment of the umpires, either physical or verbal may result in an ejection from the game.

Game Balls ­– Game balls will be provided for the tournament and will be put into play by the umpire. Teams will not receive balls.

Players on the field ­- Each team may have a maximum of 10 fielders and a minimum of 8. A non­-defensive catcher will be provided if your team has only 8 players.

Batting order ­- Maximum batting order of 15 batters and minimum of 8 batters are required for game to be legal. If your team has more than 15 players present and you wish to play them all they must substitute for players already in the game. Teams will follow the ASA re­entry rules for substituting players.

Ghost Outs – A team must bat 9 batters minimum. While teams are allowed to play with 8 players, a team will receive a ghost out in the 9th spot in the order if they only have 8 players batting. If a team loses players to injury or if they leave early for any reason during the course of the game and fall below 9 and there is no one on the bench to replace them a team will receive a ghost out in the 9th spot. If the team falls below 8 batters the game is a forfeit.

Home Runs – All fields that have fences or tree lines (or marked HR lines) have a 3 hr limit, if the ball is hit over the fence or tree line (or marked HR line) in the air. Balls that bounce over or through the fence or tree line (or marked HR line) are not HR’s. Once a team has used all 3 of it’s HR’s all subsequent balls hit over the fence or tree line will be outs.

Players arriving late ­– Must be placed at the bottom of the order in the order in which they arrived and cannot enter the game while their team is on the field.

Courtesy runners and injury ­- A batter may ask for courtesy runner BEFORE his time at bat and the umpire will announce it to the opposing team. The batter may not advance beyond first base on a batted ball, except when automatic advancement would be awarded by ground rule (i.e., overthrow, automatic double or HR). Once a courtesy runner has been asked for, it is automatic for the rest of the game. A player who has asked for a courtesy runner may not later rescind his request. A replacement runner is the last player of the same gender to have completed their turn at bat and is seated on the bench. If a player is injured while running to a base it is the umpire’s discretion whether to award a courtesy runner. If the injured player is awarded a courtesy runner he must take a courtesy runner for the rest of the Tournament.

Mercy Rule ­– If one team leads by at least 20 runs after 4 innings or at least 15 runs after 5 innings or at least 12 runs after 6 innings the game will be considered over.

Eligible Bats ­– The HUB uses the ASA banned bat list as a guide for allowable bats. Eligible bats must bear the ASA seal and not be listed on the banned bat list. Rolled, shaved, loaded or otherwise altered bats are not allowed. If you are found to be using an altered, banned or illegal bat during the game all runs resulting from that time at bat will be removed from the score book, the batter will be out and your team will be assessed a 2 run penalty and the player using the bat and the bat itself will be removed from the game. If the offending player leaves your team with only 8 players the game is forfeit. DO NOT USE ILLEGAL BATS. If there is a question about a bat’s eligibility the captain of the questioning team must bring his question to the umpire who will check the bat. The umpire’s decision is final.

Count and Fouling Out ­- Each batter will begin his turn at bat with a one ball and one strike count. Batters have one foul to waste.

Mound, Bases and Pitching Arc ­– The mound be at a distance of 50’ from home plate. The bases will be measured at 70’ where applicable and the pitching arc will be 6’ to ­10’.

No bunting, stealing, leading off base, take­out slides or blocking a base. Runners must avoid contact when arriving at a base.

Waiver Forms ­- All teams are required to have their teams sign player waiver forms.. This is mandatory to be eligible to play in the tourney.

POOL PLAY AND WILD CARD TIE­-BREAKING PROCEDURES

Pool Play Tie Breaker –  In the case where three teams are tied with a 2-1 record:

1. Fewest runs allowed among tied teams
2. Fewest runs allowed in loss
3. Best run differential among tied teams
4. Best run differential in loss
5. Most runs scored among tied teams
6. Most runs scored in loss

Tie Breaking rules are applied sequentially. If after a tie breaking rule has been applied two teams still remain tied then the winner of the head to head match-up between the those two teams is the winner.

Example: If Team A has allowed 15 runs and Team B has allowed 15 runs and Team C has allowed 20 runs then the C is eliminated and it goes to head to head between A and B. If all 3 teams have allowed 15 runs then it moves to the second tie-breaker and so on until a winner is determined.

Wild Card Tie Breaker

All teams who finish the tourney 2-1 in the prescribed pools are eligible to qualify for the one Gold bracket wild card and the 4 Silver bracket spots. The team with the fewest runs allowed in the Tournament will be the Gold Wild Card. The next 4 teams with the fewest runs allowed will be the Silver bracket teams. Tiebreakers will be:

1. Fewest runs allowed in the tournament
2. Fewest runs allowed in loss
3. Best run differential in loss
4. Best overall run differential
5. Most runs scored in the tournament
6. Most runs scored in loss

Tiebreakers will be applied sequentially only among teams remaining tied at the previous tiebreaker (other teams are eliminated) until all wild card slots are awarded.