Beaverdale Little League Intermediate (50/70) Baseball
2017 rules roundup
1. TIME LIMIT: Intermediate games run a maximum of 7 innings (except when the game is tied),
but the top of an inning may not start after 1 hour 50 minutes. The umpire will keep the official
time. Expect most games to run 4-5 innings.
2. SCORING LIMIT: There is no 10-run or other “mercy” rule.
3. MINIMUM AT-BATS: All players must bat in your starting lineup. Alert the opposing manager if
you will have a player arriving late, and indicate where in the lineup he will bat.
4. MINIMUM DEFENSIVE PLAY: Every player must play a minimum of 6 defensive outs, but they do
NOT have to be consecutive outs. However, those 6 outs MUST be played by the end of the 4th
inning. (The only exception is if fewer than 4 innings have been played by the time limit.)
5. BATS: Intermediate bats may have a 2-5/8” barrel but must be “drop 3” (a –3 on the barrel),
with a black-and-white BBCOR stamp. No bats with a bigger barrel are allowed, nor are 2-5/8”
bats with drop 4 or higher. Bats with a 2-1/4” barrel are allowed, but they should be made of
aluminum, with no composite materials. See the 2017 Little League rule book for specifics.
NOTE: The bat rule changes for 2018, in that ALL bats must have the “USA Baseball” logo. Please
encourage players’ parents NOT to buy a new bat for this season.
6. FIELD PREP/CLEANUP: The home team will prep the field before the game. This means setting
up bases, removing the mound cover, leveling the dirt by home plate if necessary, and chalking
the lines. The visiting team is responsible for field cleanup, which includes covering the mound,
removing and storing the bases, and using the bunker rake on the field.
7. GAME BALLS: The home team should provide two new Little League baseballs (provided to you
by BLL) for the umpire before each game.
8. UMPIRE: The league supplies a paid home-plate umpire.
9. MINIMUM NUMBER OF PLAYERS: Playing with 8 or even 7 players is OK, and teams with fewer
than 9 players will NOT be forced to “take an out” wherever those missing players would be in
the lineup. If you expect to have 6 or fewer players available for a game, however, it will be
necessary to reschedule the game. (Forfeits in these cases don’t benefit anyone—the kids want
to play these games, and we should want them to play.)
10. BALKS: In the first half of the season, there will be ONE balk warning per new pitcher in each
game. The umpire may stop the game to instruct the pitcher on how he or she balked. In the
second half, there will be NO warning before a balk is called.
11. “BASE DANCING”: To prevent play being slowed by a runner consistently “dancing” off a base to
provoke a pickoff attempt between pitches, once a pitched ball is returned to the pitcher and
he or she has returned to the rubber, all runners must return to their base before leading off
again. This rule is meant to speed up play—while steals and pickoffs are an essential part of
baseball, they shouldn’t come at the expense of pitching and hitting.
12. MAKEUP GAMES: If Field 7 has no games scheduled the following day, expect a rained-out game
to be played then. Exceptions may be made (for example, if managers will be out of town or
otherwise unavailable) on a case-by-case basis.
13. SUBMITTING SCORES AND PITCH COUNTS: No less than 24 hours after the completion of the
game, the manager of the HOME team must submit the game date, score and pitch counts
(broken down by each player) to the league representative at [email protected]. The league
rep will then post this information on the BLL website so that all managers can observe which
players on their upcoming opponent are eligible to pitch.
14. RULE QUESTIONS: Managers should contact the league rep (and cc the other managers) with
any rule question that might be able to be resolved before game day.
—Kevin Cox, Intermediate league representative, 515-710-0993, [email protected]