Too many infielders?
 

ASA Tournament. Coach of 10U.
To my eye, the field seems to have an abnormally large distance from home skinned. I have my outfielders playing on edge of grass for first several batters, then when a small batter comes up, I call to my outfielders to move in two steps, which puts them on the gravel. Blue calls time and tells me that's too many infielders, my outfielders have to be on the grass.

Is this correct? I can't remember the word "grass" appearing anywhere in the ASA rulebook. I have coached high school games played entirely on dirt. Also, I read Rule 6 (Fast Pitch) Section 5A to say that all defensive players except the catcher must be in fair territory, nothing more.

I've never heard of anything either. Of course, its possible that this is a local rule. Come to think of it though, I've never seen this in any ruleset.

The closest thing I can think of is co-ed in college intramurals, where they didn't want men fielding all the "important" positions and phasing out the women from fielding. This also included "overfielding", but did nothing to define where fielders had to positions themselves.

Can you say, "Coed, slow pitch softball"?

Bob

Not in ASA, even in that division. Perhaps some local leagues may have adopted that USSSA version, as many consider using the two different sized game balls a concern.

Similarly, some local rec leagues attempt to define infield and outfield in younger ages; but, not an ASA rule in any age, level, or division.

Well, actually ASA does define infielder and outfielder for the purpose of the Co-ed game. There must be two male and two female in each area.

While there is no distance requirements, they must still meet the qualifications set forth in Rule 1. The only time this would come into an issue is if the umpire judges that one of the outfielders is now covering part of the field normally covered by an infielder in that particular game situation. IOW, the umpire should be able to tell which players are outfielders and which are infielders.