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The underhand pitch was the original baseball pitch. Originally created as a sport for baseball players to maintain dexterity in the off season, softball gained so much popularity, it became its own sport. In 1991, women's softball was added to the roster of the 1996 Summer Olympics. [3]
With the 2024 NCAA Softball Tournament kicking off, here's a look at why college pitchers throw underhand, and why it differs from baseball:
Underhand; no speed or arc restrictions. Underhand; must travel in an arc and within certain height restrictions (a common range is between 6 and 12 feet (1.8 and 3.7 m) above the ground). Umpire can call a pitch "illegal" while in flight. Illegal pitch Most infractions punished as a balk. The ball remains live.
Softball is a popular variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) permitted.
In sports, the term diamond sports refers to recreational (often scaled down) variants of baseball, a bat-and-ball sport. [1] The most popular and closely related sport to baseball is softball, [2] with the two sports being administered internationally by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), alongside Baseball5. [3] [4]
In baseball, the pitch is the act of throwing the baseball toward home plate to start a play. The term comes from the Knickerbocker Rules. Originally, the ball had to be thrown underhand, much like "pitching in horseshoes". Overhand pitching was not allowed in baseball until 1884. The biomechanics of pitching have been studied extensively.
Pitchers throw the ball with an underhand motion at speeds up to 77 miles per hour (124 km/h) for women. Monica Abbott set this record while playing with the Chicago Bandits in June of 2012. [3] The pitching style of fastpitch is different from that of slowpitch softball.
[2] [3] The corresponding slow velocity bears more resemblance to a slow-pitch softball delivery than to a traditional baseball pitch. It is considered a trick pitch because, in comparison to normal baseball pitches, which run from 70 to 100 miles per hour (110 to 160 km/h), an eephus pitch appears to move in slow motion at 55 mph (89 km/h) or ...