Gap Church 9u Little League Rules For the 2026 Season 10 game season

1: Must have a Minimum of 10 and a maximum of 14 players on roster. There are 9 teams in the
9u division this season. They will all be in one division.

The top 5 teams will make the playoffs.

4th‑ and 5th‑place teams will play a single‑game playoff to determine which team earns the 4th seed in
the postseason bracket.

1st place will play 4th place and 2nd place will play 3rd place in a best of 3 series.
The winners will then play the best of 3 championship series.

 (for playoff seeding in the event of a tie record, the head to head will be the 1rst tiebreaker and run differential will
be the 2nd tiebreaker)

2: Each team must have a minimum of 8 players to play a qualifying game. If needed to add a player to fill for one game, he needs to be from one of the other teams in the division at about the same skill level as the player he is replacing. This will need to be agreed upon by both coaches on each team in the game.

3: Players must be no younger than 7 or older than 9 at the start of the league year Jan 1st (birth year 2016-2018) to take part or play in any league game. (We do reserve the right to make exceptions for 6 year old’s if agreed upon by the committee members and the other coaches in the division.)

4: Bases by rule are to be spaced at 52ft. The Pitcher's base to home plate is 36ft. Coaches pitch for the 9u division. Coaches pitch to their own team.

5: Each game is 5 innings. There is a 6 run cap per inning except the 5th inning or later (if extra innings are necessary)

6: No base on balls, only swinging strikes or foul balls are called strikes. 3 strikes and the batter is out.

7: We do not use the infield fly rule in the 9u division

8: No steals, leads or advance of any base runner until the batter contacts the ball.

9: There is a defensive coach allowed on the field, he must be positioned in the outfield.

10: Each player on the roster that is attending the game MUST have at least 1 inning of defense.

11. No Courtesy runner, pinch runner only in the case of a injury.

12: All players in the dugout must be in the batting lineup.

13: All bats are required to have an ASA or USSSA/USA Softball stamp on the bats, all bats must be in usable factory condition with no dents, cracks and no shaved or altered bats etc. (We reserve the right as the league officials or committee to declare a bat unsafe if deemed necessary)

14: All ASA, USSSA/USA Softball rules apply to games unless specified otherwise as above by the league officials/committee members.

GCL will supply 1 dozen of 11” .52 core balls to each team. The home team is to provide the balls for the game.

After each game it is the Home Teams responsibility to text the score to the coaches WhatsApp page

GCL has a zero-tolerance policy for any aggressive or inappropriate physical contact or verbal abuse with any player, coach, umpire, fan, parent, or other person. And any breach of this
rule is grounds for immediate action, including removal from the position of coach or manager.

Just a reminder each Team is responsible for cleaning up their trash inside and outside the dugout!!