Softball Pitching Question

[softballcoach]

Saturday my team was playing PONY 12U softball, during the 2nd inning the starting pitcher was pulled and moved to shortstop. The shortstop became the pitcher and finished out the inning. The start of the the 3rd inning, the original pitcher was taken out of the game at shortstop and was on the bench. The relief pitcher pitched to 2 batters, coach comes out and pulls her out of the game and calls for the original starting pitcher who is now sitting on the bench. I argued it was an illegal substitution since she had been removed from the game, but could not find it in the rule book. Can someone please point this out to me? According to the PONY rule book there is a note that states:

NOTE: A pitcher may be removed as a pitcher, move to a different defensive position and return as a pitcher only once per inning provided the return as pitcher does not violate either the substitution or charged conference rule.

Can anyone give me any other guidance on this??? Thanks!!

[jim knight]

Coach... I am not totally up on the pony rules set but IF there is a provision for re-entry the pitcher would be able to return to the game and to pitch.

[mstaylor]

Saturday my team was playing PONY 12U softball, during the 2nd inning the starting pitcher was pulled and moved to shortstop. The shortstop became the pitcher and finished out the inning. The start of the the 3rd inning, the original pitcher was taken out of the game at shortstop and was on the bench. The relief pitcher pitched to 2 batters, coach comes out and pulls her out of the game and calls for the original starting pitcher who is now sitting on the bench. I argued it was an illegal substitution since she had been removed from the game, but could not find it in the rule book. Can someone please point this out to me? According to the PONY rule book there is a note that states:

Can anyone give me any other guidance on this??? Thanks!!

I thought the same as you,but I'm not a softball rules guy. I figured she couldn't leave and return to the mound so I checked with Pony. Below is their andswer.

There are two parts to your question.

I believe you are refering to the NOTE in Rule 4, Section 3 about a pitcher

leaving the pitching position, moving to another defensive position, and

then returning to pitch in the same inning. That note means what it says.

A pitcher may leave the pitching position, go to another defensive position,

and return to pitch only once per inning. This was designed to prevent a

pitcher from leaving the pitching position, go play another defensive

position, return to pitch, go play another defensive position, return to

pitch every other batter or so within the same inning.

A pitcher may leave the game and return to pitch any time as long as she

doesn't violate the re-entry rule, which only allows one re-entry.

[softballcoach]

I thought the same as you,but I'm not a softball rules guy. I figured she couldn't leave and return to the mound so I checked with Pony. Below is their andswer.

There are two parts to your question.

I believe you are refering to the NOTE in Rule 4, Section 3 about a pitcher

leaving the pitching position, moving to another defensive position, and

then returning to pitch in the same inning. That note means what it says.

A pitcher may leave the pitching position, go to another defensive position,

and return to pitch only once per inning. This was designed to prevent a

pitcher from leaving the pitching position, go play another defensive

position, return to pitch, go play another defensive position, return to

pitch every other batter or so within the same inning.

A pitcher may leave the game and return to pitch any time as long as she

doesn't violate the re-entry rule, which only allows one re-entry.

Thanks for doing the digging on this. I sure wish these organizations would get together on some of these rules. This is the first time I've seen this one like it is. I have always been under the assumption (I know what happens when you assume) that once a pitcher has been removed from the game they may not re-enter as a pitcher. I know they may be removed from the position and play another defensive position and return in the same inning to pitch. The Atlanta Braves did that very same thing either last year or the year before. The manager pulled a pitcher and placed him in RF, brought in a reliever to pitch to 1 batter then pulled him and brought the previous pitcher back from RF.