2011 South Bay Pony Division Interlock

The Los Altos-Mountain View (LA-MV) PONY Baseball League will continue to administer and operate the South Bay Pony Division Interlock League each season. In addition to LA-MV, teams from the Sunnyvale-Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Gatos, and San Jose-Pacific, and Santa Clara PONY Baseball Leagues will also participate. The LA-MV Pony Division Director will act as the Interlock League Director, and will be responsible for organizing the Interlock, scheduling regular season and playoff games, facilitating all Interlock communications including posting of schedules, results, and standings, and resolving all Interlock issues.

General Information

Game pairings are in "visitor first - home second" order (Example SV3-LA2 - Team SV3 is the Visitor and Team LA2 is the Home Team). Visitors are in the First (1st) Base Dugout. Home teams are to use the Third (3rd) Base dugouts. Home teams are responsible for BOTH the pre-game grooming and field preparation, chalking of base lines, batters boxes, and on-deck circles, placement of bases, etc. as well as post game field clean up - dragging of the dirt portion of the infields, baselines, batters boxes and raking of the pitcher's mound, removal of bases (if no subsequent games are to be played that day). Each team must clean up their own dugout area after completion of the game.
Both Home and Visiting Team Managers are responsible for completing post-game reports and submitting electronically via the web-based game reporting tool in a timely manner.
Interlock League Director, will publish the results, standings, and New on a weekly basis. These will published on the LA-MV Website — Link to Pony Division Standings.
Reschedules, in general, will only be allowed for weather related or field related conditions, or other uncontrollable external reasons. Games called due to darkness, after reaching a legal number of innings will not be rescheduled and those games will be considered complete unless the score is tied. In this case, the tied/called game will be rescheduled (as per Reschedule Clause in General Information) for completion at a later time, picking up at the same point where the game was called, and continuing until completion. Tied games whose outcome knowingly will NOT have a bearing on post season play do not necessarily have to be completed.
The Interlock League Champion will be determined by a Playoff Tournament. The Interlock League Director will determine at the start of the season the format of the Tournament (e.g. double elimination, pool play with elimination, hybrid, etc.). Teams will be power seeded according to the Final Standings from the regular season. Ties in the Final Standings will be broken by use of the following tie breakers: 1) head-to-head record; 2) fewest runs allowed; and, 3) run differential.
Minimum play rule is to be determined by each League's Local Rules, but in no event shall it be less than three (3) complete innings and one (1) at bat.
Managers are not to play more than two players in a batting order slot.
At the start of the game, a manager may opt to bat an Extra Hitter (EH) in the lineup so long as he has at least ten players present. The EH batting option must be declared to the umpires on the lineup card. A starter in the EH role does not play defense, but may later substitute defensively for another starter provided he continues to bat in the same position in the order. If a team starting with an EH in their lineup cannot continue to bat 10 players during a game for any reason, it must record an automatic out when the vacant position comes up to bat.
On continuation games for rain or darkness, if a high school player was not available at the time of a non-completed game the H.S. player is not eligible to play in the continuation of the game. This can be over ruled if both managers agree to do so. Otherwise, the H.S. player is to be unavailable for the continuation of the game.
In the contingency where City Fields are not ready to begin the season, the schedule will pick up on the date when the city allows the fields to be available. The Interlock League Director will reschedule games cancelled for this reason.

Rescheduling

Must be arranged one week in advance by Home Team
Opposing coach must agree
Must be played within 2 weeks of original date and no later than two weeks prior to the end of the regular season.
Requesting coach must notify the Interlock League Director and make sure the umpire chief is notified and umpires will be available for the makeup date.
If caused by bad weather, still try to play the makeup game within 2 weeks, the Home Team manager will arrange for umpire rescheduling through communication with the Interlock League Director.

Game Starts

Games must be played on scheduled dates, whether or not umpires show up. If no umpires are available, one volunteer from each team should be requested to substitute for the umpires.
Games must start no later than 15 minutes after scheduled start time if umpires do not show up.
A call to the designated umpire coordinator for the Santa Clara Valley Federation of Umpires should be made to report the lack of umpires. Updated contact information will be distributed at the start of each season.
The Home Team shall supply three new Pony-stamped game balls to the umpires.
The Home Team is responsible for preparing the playing field prior to the game - raking or dragging dirt areas of the infield, chalking the base lines, batters boxes and on-deck circles, etc.
The Home Team is also responsible for post game grooming of the field - assuming no other PONY games are to be played on that field on that day.

Time Limits

All games are 7 innings (6½ innings) per Pony Division standards
However, on weekdays no inning shall start after 2 ¼ hours, and on weekends after 2½ hours. Time is judged at the end of the previous inning. Games must start within 10 minutes of the scheduled start time. If a prior game is running late, the next game must start within 20 minutes from the end of the previous game. Games may end in a tie.
Time Limits apply only to regular season and makeup games. Playoff and championship games are played with no time limits (except for games called due to weather or available light).

Umpires and Reporting of Game Results

Two adult umpires will be provided for each game: one Plate and one Field umpire. If only one umpire is available and no backup is available, the remaining umpire will act as Plate umpire and call all field plays from the Plate. In the event that no umpires are available, the two teams can either agree to hold the game with volunteer umpire, or decide to reschedule.
The Home Team has the responsibility to record the names of the umpires prior to the start of each game. The best time to do this is during the lineup card exchanges at home plate, immediately prior to the start of each game.
A summary of the results of each game must be reported by the coaches of both the Home Team and the Visiting Team in order to get corroboration of the game results. LA-MV will provide an online web-based reporting tool for all coaches to submit their after-game reports including umpire information, player and pitching information, and scoring. This web-based tool will fold all reported data into real-time online standings so that all interested parties can have timely access to results and current standings.
During the regular season, coaches must report their game reports within 48 hours of the completion of the game. During playoffs, game reports must be filed by no later than 9am the next day.

Pitching Limits

In an effort to better protect our players from the negative effects of overpitching, all pitchers will be subject to strict pitch count limits.
A player may pitch for a maximum of 10 innings or 135 pitches (whichever comes first) in a week, and a maximum of 7 innings or 95 pitches (whichever comes first) per day. A pitcher who pitches 4 innings or 55 pitches in a day may not pitch again until 40 hours have elapsed from the start of the game in which the player first pitched that day.
If a pitcher reaches his maximum per-day or per-week pitch count during an at-bat, the pitcher will be allowed to continue to complete the current at-bat, but must be replaced immediately afterwards.
Scorekeepers shall track both innings pitched and pitch count for each pitcher, and will notify the appropriate head coach when a pitcher has reached his/her inning and/or pitch count limit. In the event that the home and visitor scorebooks cannot be reconciled during in the course of a game, the home scorebook will take precedence.
A single pitch is considered to be an inning. The week runs from 12:00am Monday to 11:59pm Sunday.
These pitch count limits will apply only to regular season and makeup games and do not apply to playoff games. Note that Pitch Inning limits will still apply at all times in accordance with the official PONY Baseball Rules and Regulations.
Violations of these Pitch Count rules will be subject to the same penalties as described in the official PONY Baseball Rules and Regulations for Pitch Inning Limit violations. Additional penalties may be levied by the participating leagues at their discretion.

Behavior Issues

There is a limit of THREE (3) coaches allowed in the dugout. If two coaches are coaching at First and Third base when their team is at bat, only ONE other coach is permitted in the dugout at that time.
Team coaches are responsible for controlling the players of their team.
Parents are not allowed in the dugouts during the game.
Spectators are to behave in a proper manner and use good sportsmanship and limit baseball chatter to a positive nature, and NOT bush league yelling, fence shaking, and other negative, distracting behavior towards player, coaches, managers and umpires. Failure to do so will result in removal from the park (out of sight and sound). Continued violations may and can result in a forfeit of the game and or removals from all Pony activities and or/the League. Public Safety notification of the occurrence may be used to enforce this ruling.
Coaches should not permit confrontational behavior such as unnecessarily hard tagging, cursing, verbal challenges, staring down of opponents, etc. Any such negative behavior should be eliminated to prevent games from getting out of hand.
Disciplinary actions taken by Managers towards players that limit playing time is to be reviewed by League Director prior to action being taken. Notice to the League Director must be made prior to action being taken and it must be in writing followed up by notice to the parents prior to any action being taken.