The Big Picture

In Hills, we are a keystone among thousands of other similar stones in the worldwide pyramid of junior baseball. The basic unit of organisation is the local League, of which Hills Juniors administer two:- Hills Northern Zone and Hills Southern Zone.

For more detail on the international structure of Little League, see the Little League International website.

Hills Holiday Season Little League

Hills Juniors run a "Little League compliant" Regular Season on Saturday mornings among our thirteen clubs, in the U/12 age group. This goes from September each year to March the following year.

Responding to demand from players for more baseball in the summer school holidays, Hills introduced a Holiday Season programme in 2007/8, which continues this year.

Two Zones?

One of the limbs of Australian Little League policy is that each area has no more than 250 players. In Hills, we have over 400 eligible players, which means that we will need to have two Zones. Both are administered by Hills Juniors under identical rules, and teams in both play in a single non-elimination Holiday Season competition. It also means we are entitled to enter two Tournament Teams to the State Championships instead of one.

Hills as you now know it is split, but only for Holiday Season Little League purposes, into the two zones based on the residential postcode of each player. So, if your home is in postcode 2154 or lower, you’ll be in the Hills Southern LL Zone. If your home is in postcode 2155 or higher, you’re in the Hills Northern LL Zone.

It doesn't matter which club you play for on weekends and it doesn't affect where your LL games are played. It is an administrative split that's used only to allocate players to one or the other Tournament Team.

Major v Minor Divisions?

This season, Hills will run both Major and Minor League divisions

Playing Restrictions?

For those of you familiar with the pitching and playing restrictions placed on representative players each weekend in club games, you're entitled to ask how that policy will be applied to Holiday Season Little League.

In short, it won't be. The rep season this year will be completed before Christmas.

Pitching & Protection Restrictions?

We use the NSW U/12 SJC pitching restrictions, not those of Little League Inc. Only fastballs and change-ups are permitted, as is the case in weekend games. Other related rules (eg:- no player may pitch and catch in the same game) remain unchanged from our weekend protocols. Full rules are in the RuleBook.

Participation

All players must play at least six Defensive Outs per game [on average] and bat at least once, unless injured. Also, players must participate in at least 90% of the games. Over the ten games these holidays, that means each player must play in six games and collect 36 Defensive Outs [both are minimums].

The coach can move players from the bench to the field at will, with no restrictions on re-entry. All available players must be listed on the batting lineup.