Courtesy Runner Rule

[Rick Vietti]

I agree good preventitive officiating is always the best course of action rather than having illegal substitutes.

Actually my theory is that if we are recording substitutes properly on the lineup cards and keeping track of re-entries, then an illegal substitute should NEVER happen. The Fed book has several pages on the penalties etc... but in many years of doing High School Fastpitch, I have never seen an illegal substitute try to get into the game.

I use the technique with the coach that when a player has used up all of their re-entries, then I inform the coach that "This is Player Smiths last re-entry!"