Today begins the first full weekend of conference play in the Big 12 conference. Within the past week, Baylor took two games from Texas, and Oklahoma beat Oklahoma State in a single game. This weekend features three-game series between Baylor and Iowa State; Kansas and Oklahoma; and OSU and Texas Tech. Seven schools in the conference play softball, so Texas is the odd team out this weekend, playing a two-game nonconference series with BYU. The Big 12 appears to be a bit down this year, as only two schools are currently in the nation's Top 25, Oklahoma (No. 13/14) and Baylor (No. 19/19).
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...