The 2012 season gets underway today with a plethora of tournaments around the country. The leading tourney is, of course, the annual Kajikawa Classic at Arizona State (master schedule). The host Sun Devils, who won last year's NCAA championship, are ranked No. 1 in both major national polls (see links section to the right). All of the Pac 12's softball schools are participating in the Kajikawa except UCLA (which hosts its own tournament featuring up-and-coming Kentucky). Cal (3/4) joins ASU as a preseason top 5 team. Top teams in the Kajikawa from outside the Pac 12 include Tennessee (9/14), Texas A&M (15/17), Nebraska (20 tie/21), and Georgia Tech (23/unranked).
This Friday (and all remaining Fridays of the regular season), I will preview the upcoming weekend's games. Before doing so, I wanted to do an entry, primarily for sports fans who have not watched much softball, on differences they could expect to see between softball and baseball. The Sandy Plains Softball Association of Marietta, Georgia has produced a document entitled Fastpitch 101 , which details the similarities and differences in the rules of the two sports. Here are some of my own observations from over the years: 1. Because the bases are considerably closer together in softball (60 feet) than in baseball (90 feet), softball infielders consistently must pick up ground balls and make their throws to first base quickly, in order to get the runner. In other words, many (if not most) softball grounders result in "bang-bang" plays at first base, necessitating a lot of close calls by first-base umpires, who must detect whether the thrown ball (to the first-baseperso...