Latest on NCAA Pitching Clarification

[Manny A]

10.2.2 While in the pitching position and taking the signal, the
pitcher must take or appear to take a signal. The signal need not
come from the catcher.

Clarification 1: Taking the signal from behind the pitcher’s plate
from her signal arm band or the catcher is illegal since the pitcher
is not in the pitching position. The result is an illegal pitch.

So here's an issue I ran into last week during a fall ball game. By rule, the pitcher has ten seconds once she receives the ball to get onto the pitcher's plate. Then she has another ten seconds to bring her hands together. After that, she has five seconds to deliver the pitch.

Before this taking the signal rule change, pitchers would be off the plate to get the signal, then step onto the plate and look in at their catcher. They would rarely take ten seconds to do either. But during my game, pitchers came very close to violating the ten-second limit from when they step onto the plate to when they bring their hands together. In a couple of occasions, the pitcher did violate the rule when either she or her catcher had trouble receiving the signal from the dugout. It's almost as if the first ten-second window (pitcher receives the ball to when she engages the plate) is no longer relevant.

So I'm kinda curious if NCAA is going to change the rule to the 20-second limit that is used in other organizations, such as NFHS. Instead of having this bifurcated 10-10-5 rule, just give the pitcher 20 seconds from once she receives the ball to when she releases the ball. It would make things a little simpler from an enforcement standpoint, and it would not penalize pitchers who now have to receive the signal, check the arm band, and then put their hands together, all within ten seconds while contacting the plate.