Advice: Positioning girls in co-ed softball

[The Active 33]

I am a coach for a team in a co-ed softball tournament this weekend. I am looking for advice and strategy for positioning girls in the field. The rules are 10 player (5 guys and 5 girls), and girls cannot pitch. I have one girl who is good, I am thinking about playing her in left field. Where do I put the 5 girls?

 

Thanks

[razzzorsharp]

C, 2B, RF, and 1B. This basing it off the fact that these girls should be able to catch and your SS and 3B are accurate enough with their throws.

[dadofandrew]

Usually, girls play 2B, 3B, LCF, RF, and C, or at least they did 15 years ago. Sometimes they put a girl that can catch at 1B, or one that can throw at 3B. By far the most unique was one team we played had their guys play all 4 OF spots and SS.

[stoutdude04]

I have played a few coed tournies. We always play strong up the middle. Girls at the corners. So, C, 1b, 3b, lf, rf. Men up the middle. Youd be surprised, girls usually never hit it to 3rd. Always up the middle, must be the way they are brought up to play.

[jwill535]

my wife plays 3rd for our team, she has a better arm(acurate) then i do, which is why i have played 1st for the last 20 years of baseball and softball, but then again i can do the splits and she can't. She also is a dead pull hitter. I agree that 3rd, 2nd. We also put them in the gap so that the other fielders can cover her.

[brewcrewreview]

Rarely do girls play first in co-ed softball. It's usually not a good move to do this.

[statman0007]

I've been in a similar situation before, and while I agree with 2B, 3B, and C, I tend to think that the outfielders are the most important position in softball. If a ball gets by someone, it means triple or home-run for sure with those 60 ft bases. This goes for anyone that isn't as strong as a player, not just the girls. Judging a high fly ball is one of those things that you have to do hundreds of times before you really read them well, so sticking someone in the outfield with little experience is a bad idea. What my team does, is play 3 "normal" outfielders and have 2 "short" outfielders. 2 girls usually hold down the short spots. They've had a lot of success in this role so far, and even if they do make a mistake it usually only means a pop-out turned into a single.

[zzzmanwitz]

my wife plays 3rd for our team, she has a better arm(acurate) then i do, which is why i have played 1st for the last 20 years of baseball and softball, but then again i can do the splits and she can't. She also is a dead pull hitter. I agree that 3rd, 2nd. We also put them in the gap so that the other fielders can cover her.

 

Do you do the splits better than she does too. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[giffted1]

A lot of it depends on the type of team you're playing. On most of the teams we play, the guys are righthanded and try to pull everything, so we have our girls at C, 2B, 3B (our girl at 3B is very good), RCF, and RF.

[jason21nl]

I have never played on a co ed team where my 1st wasn't a girl. Of course the co ed teams that I have played on have been amazing, where our shortstop was a girl along with our left center.

[wallus]

I have found the best strategy is to put guys directly next to a girl. NEVER have an all girl side of anything because they are almost always slower than a guy. For example, do not have them play 3rd and SS or 2nd and 1st. I would suggest putting them in the corners in the outfield so the guys can cover for them. This strategy has worked well for the team that stoutdude04 and I played on.

[PlayerHader]

Is there any rules? Do you need to go guy-girl in the OF and IF? If so we usually go guy in LF behind a girl at 3B then flip flopping across from there. You need two really decent girls at least for Left-Center and 3B, but it works out all right.

[The Active 33]

No rules, except the pitcher must be a guy.

[stoutdude04]

Rarely do girls play first in co-ed softball. It's usually not a good move to do this.

I am not sure why you feel this way. Perhaps a lot of other teams have done this. Most of the good teams that I have seen and played with always have a girl at first. As long as the girl can catch a throw at her it usually works out well. We have usually thought that our best infielders shouldnt go to 1st(picking balls out of the dirt), but rather short and 2nd. We never expect our 1st basemen to make an amazing scoop, but if she does thats just an added bonus. Im curious why you think this is a bad move? Maybe ill bring it up this summer.

 

The only problem weve ever encountered is the fact that I usually play short, and I have an extreme side arm to underhand throw. Thus, the ball dances alot. But she got used to it right away. It usually moves the same way.

[jwill535]

For straight chuck-n-duck we would have a girl pitching, if you could go unlimited for the men then i would pitch.

 

**to answer zzman, having been a 1st basemen since i was 10 i developed the ability to do the splits the hard way, tear all the muscles and have them grow back(thats how you get flexibility) and the use of stretching machines in college(coaches orders) and was one of the things that my wife says was one of the things that attracted her to me, sucks for her i guess.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif**

[BuckyTuba]

C, 2B, RC

[sbrylski]

You HAVE to have a good catching first baseman. Don't sacrifice that to fit a girl there. I second putting another girl at 3B, with half the lineup as girls you won't get many hit down the left field line. One girl at catcher, and then two in the OF, probably the corners. Or stagger them.

 

C - 3B - LF - RF - and then the best girl at her natural position (1B/2B/OF)

[TooLiveBrew]

Do you do the splits better than she does too. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif Well if she can best J in that, that marriage has some real fireworks...

 

and was one of the things that my wife says was one of the things that attracted her to me, sucks for her i guess

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/embarassed.gif

[PlayerHader]

You HAVE to have a good catching first baseman. Don't sacrifice that to fit a girl there. I second putting another girl at 3B, with half the lineup as girls you won't get many hit down the left field line. One girl at catcher, and then two in the OF, probably the corners. Or stagger them.

 

C - 3B - LF - RF - and then the best girl at her natural position (1B/2B/OF)

Girl at 3B and LF leaves a pretty nice area for big mean pull hitters. You are probably putting your 3B in a more dangerous spot by doing this. I'd go girl at 3B and guy in LF.

[brewizard]

Man, I thought this thread was going to give me advice PROpositioning girls in co-ed softball.

 

I'm soooo sick of striking out!

 

 

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[RockCoCougars]

Man, I thought this thread was going to give me advice PROpositioning girls in co-ed softball.

Same here, this thread has caught my eye a few times this weekend. Good to see someone else was thinking the same thing...