FLORIDA DIAMOND FASTPITCH RULES ARE A COMBINATION OF NFHS, FHSAA & BABE RUTH

COACH PITCH: BABE RUTH, NFHS & FHSAA RULES

1. The pitching coach can coach/instruct their base coaches on plays BEFORE the 1st pitch is thrown. The Coach pitching may use their one offense time out to talk to the players.
2. During the game, the coach will only pitch FIVE pitches. This can consist of THREE strikes, or FIVE pitches whichever occurs first to the batter.  No matter what the strike count, the batter must hit or foul off the fifth pitch to avoid being out. There are NO walks by the Coach. 
3.  If the Coach is hit with a batted ball, the play is dead, and all runners and batters are given one base. 
4. When the Coach pitches to the batter he/she does not have to stand on the pitching rubber they just have to have his/her feet inside the circle when pitching.
5. Bunting is allowed.  Slash bunting is allowed. Slap hitting is allowed.
6. A batter may not run on dropped 3rd strike; the batter will be automatically out. There is also no pass balls if a catcher misses the pitch. This means a runner cannot advance.
7. If a batter bats the ball and a player misses the catch, there will be no infield fly rule. 
8. There are no illegal pitches called in 8U, however, if the umpire believes you are intentionally throwing bad pitches, they will issue a warning to the coach.
9.  There is no stealing only leading off the bases.  The runner may begin to lead off the base when the ball leaves the pitcher's hand.  The catcher may attempt to pick off the runner on any base. If the catcher throws the ball to the base, the runner must return and tag up on that base.  This is considered a live ball. If the ball is overthrown to the baseman, the runner(s) can advance only ONE base after touching the base they came from. If the baseman catches the ball they may tag the runner as they are tagging up  and before they touch the bag and this will be considered an out. 
10. Stopping the play and runners:  This can be done in different ways.  First, the PITCHER must be in the pitching circle, with the ball, raise her hands and yell "TIME".  Second, any defensive player with the ball must be in front of the lead runner then raise her hands and yell “TIME”. Then the Umpire will call time and the play is dead.  Once the play is stopped by the Umpire, the halfway line is used to determine if the runners must go back to the previous base touched or proceed to the next base.  
11. The max number of runs per inning is 6.
12. The time limit is 1 hour and 15 minutes for 2-day tournaments and the time limit for 1 day tournaments is 1 hour. 
13.  The game will be played to the time limit set by the tournament in Pool Play unless both coaches agree to end the game early.
14.  In Bracket Play, if one team is behind by more than 6 runs and it is calculated that the one team cannot catch up in the time limit or 6 inning game, then the game will end on the agreement of the team that is behind.