Posted by: Patrick () on Fri Jul 17 13:08:50 2009

As pointed out by Coach Ken, the situation determines if the hitter gets the green light. But, 90% of the time in little league, it makes perfect sense to take the pitch for several reasons. First, when a pitcher enters himself into a 3-0 situation, there is a mechanical problem in his delivery which makes it very difficult for him to deliver a ball right down the middle of the plate so their is really not a high probability of a hitter pitch being given to the hitter. Secondly, pitch counts are an important part of the game in little league. If a pitcher gets himself in a 3-0 situation, from my perspective, it is not a good idea to swing at a pitch and allow him to save two or three pitches. Even if you have a good hitter at the plate and he takes the pitch, I would expect him to be able to hit the next strike. Two night ago, I saw a game where a very good pitcher got behind in the count 2-0 and the batter took the next to pitches to go 3-1 and then fouled two off before hitting a ground ball out. But, those six pitches were enough to remove a very good pitcher. The replacement pitcher gave up four runs including the go ahead. 3-0 should be a take unless there is an unusual situation.