fielding

Question
my daughter is in the 7th grade and this is her first year playing school ball she has played spring and summer ball for years she is on middle school team of 6th,7th and 8th graders and she is the varsity left fielder but she does not bat she is listed as a sub on the roster this has went on for about 8 games and the girl batting for her is a 6th grader only batting because of her family any ways the 6th grader usually strikes out or sometimes walks then the other day she got took out of hitting after striking out twice in a game and my daughter then batted the 3rd time and popped up to the outfield the 6th graders dad a member of the school board went and told the coach during the game he shouldnt take his daughter out for striking out it would make her worse this kind of upset me I never talk to any of my daughters coaches MY question is is it legal by rules for my daughter to play all these games in left field and not bat I told her today to tell her coach she wasnt going to play the field and not bad thank you if you can clarify this for me it is Tennessee girls middle school softball  

Answer
Hi Wesley,

It sounds to me that your daughter's team in playing 10 and using your daughter as the "flex" player.  The flex player is listed 10th in the roster but does not bat and plays defense only.  

The person batting for your daughter can be listed at any of the the 9 batting positions and is called the "DP"  They can also play defense (we won't get into that here).

If your daughter is to bat in this situation she must bat at the DP's spot(B6 for example) and the DP would be out of the game (the DP and the flex cannot be on offense at the same time)and the team would be down to 9 players.  The DP can re-enter and that would move your daughter (the flex) back to 10th spot and play defense only or she could leave the game.

That's the rules, of course any parental decisions re your daughter's playing is up to you.

Mark