Speed of softball pitch

[Tru_in_Blu]

We have a mix of leagues in slow pitch where some use the mat and some don't.

The first season we went to a mat in one league, hitting the mat was a strike, but hitting the plate was a ball. There was a lot of confusion when a ball landed on the part of the mat that touches the plate.

After a few games of chaos, it was decided that a ball hitting any part of the plate and/or mat would be a strike. The mat by itself was a pretty small target.

Thinking about t-ball, don't they typically place the stand directly on top of the plate?

Slight hi-jack while I have all these engineers and scientists mulling around this string....

We do a modified league and every couple of years the question comes up about pitch height because some pitchers throw loopy, slow pitches. A team this week complained that their opponent's pitcher was basically throwing slow pitch pitches so they thought there must be some rule about not being able to do that. We know there is no restriction.

The question I have is if a pitcher is throwing like that and the batter stands all the way to the front of the batter's box, could that type of pitch EVER be called a strike?

I'm looking for the "scientific explanation" here, not the "in my judgment" explanation. Not sure if I'll even understand the "scientific explanation", but just thought I'd pose the question.