Speed of softball pitch

[SWFLguy]

The mat. The local leagues back in CNY wanted it, because they thought it would make more constant ball/strike calls by mostly incompetent local umpires. I hated it. It was at its worst in the women's league where there were some pitchers who had trouble hitting the mat! Batters would come up, look at four balls miss the mat and trot down to 1st base thinking they had done some great feat of softball. I felt like asking them why did they bother bringing a bat with them. I wonder if they got rid of the mat after I moved down here.