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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.
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:
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 2012. [3] The pitching style of fastpitch is different from that of slowpitch softball.
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]
Curve Ball: Baseball, Statistics, and the Role of Chance in the Game. New York: Copernicus Books, 2001. ISBN 0-387-98816-5. A book on new statistics for baseball. MLB Record Book by: MLB.com; Alan Schwarz, The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics (New York: St. Martin's, 2005). ISBN 0-312-32223-2.
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.
Pitchout during a Texas A&M–Commerce Lions vs. Texas Woman's Pioneers softball game. In baseball or softball, a pitchout is a ball that is intentionally thrown high and outside the strike zone with the purpose of preventing a stolen base, thwarting a hit and run, or to prevent a run-scoring play on a suicide squeeze play.