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Softball is a popular variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) permitted. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level.
United States athlete Lisa Fernandez won gold medals in the first three Olympic softball tournaments. Softball is a sport that was formerly contested at the Summer Olympic Games. On December 8, 1989, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) declined to stage a softball tournament as a demonstration sport in the 1992 Summer Olympics. [1]
The number of Division I softball teams in the US grew from 222 in 1997 to 277 in 2007. The number of youth teams also increased from 73,567 in 1995 to 86,049 that same year. [9] Currently, there are 286 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 (D1) softball colleges across the nation. [10]
The Men's Softball World Cup, known through 2015 as the ISF Men's World Championship, is a softball tournament for the best national men's teams in the world. From 1966 to 2013 it was held every four years, first by the International Softball Federation (ISF) and from 2019 an onward it is held every two years by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), the 16 best teams in the world ...
On March 26, 2008, the United States Olympic softball team had their 185-game winning streak (both official and exhibition games) snapped in a no-hitter thrown by Virginia Tech's pitcher Angela Tincher, who struck out 10 batters in a 1–0 exhibition win for the Hokies. The no-hit win proved something extra special in this case, as Tincher had ...
A regulation softball is significantly larger than a regulation baseball. A softball measures between 11.88 and 12.13 inches in circumference and weighs between 6.25 and 7.00 ounces; a baseball measures between 9.00 and 9.25 inches in circumference and weighs between 5.00 and 5.25 ounces.
16-inch softball (sometimes called clincher, mushball, [1] cabbageball, [2] [3] puffball, blooperball, smushball, [4] and Chicago ball [5] [6]) is a variant of softball, but using a larger ball that gradually becomes softer the more the ball is hit, and played with no gloves or mitts on the fielders.
USA Softball publishes an updated rule book for softball each year which is widely used by adult and youth recreational leagues in the United States and abroad. The USA Softball rules were also used for the softball competition when it was an Olympic sport between 1996 and 2008. The most recent Olympics to feature softball, in 2021, used the ...