[greymule]

Most slow pitch leagues around here let teams start or continue with a certain minimum (as low as 8) without having to take an out. However, a team cannot play short after an ejection. No sub, forfeit, and it happens not infrequently.

Girls' rec leagues, especially at the younger levels, never take the out. One league lets them play with five. Why not? The little kids seldom hit the ball to the outfield, and everybody gets to bat a lot. And if somebody shows up, she simply enters the game at the end of the lineup.

In the tournaments, a team usually can't go short without taking an out, and short for ejection is a forfeit.

Interesting wrinkle: a few years ago, in a tournament that required a batter to be ejected for excessive home runs, a team that had come several hundred miles was way ahead late in the game, but one of their players hit one over the fence. Ejection, no sub, forfeit. However, there is now a distinction between "ejection" and "disqualification" (which allows a team to play short but take the out).