SAME LEAGUE, NEW RULES

Games at Memorial Stadium will look a little different this year.

Two things that will be different from last year are the pitch clock and the infield shift ban. The Pioneer League adopted two of the new MLB rules including adding a pitch clock for quicker games and preventing infield shifting by adding new infield lines.

The league decided to follow in the MLB’s footsteps and adopt a pitch clock. The pitch clock will run for 14 seconds with no runners on base and 18 seconds with runners on base.

“The Pioneer League is committed to giving our fans a great experience at each of our ballparks and by speeding up games and by putting the ball in play more often, we believe the fans will have more excitement and more fun,” said Pioneer League President Mike Shapiro. “Increasing the pace of play will offer more action and less wasted time between pitches.”

The pitch clock does not guarantee every game will run under two and a half hours, but it will encourage shorter games and give every inning a faster pace.

“Even with a pitch clock now there’s still going to be games that can get out of hand and get long but a pitch clock will definitely help,” said Field Manager, Gary Van Tol.

Along with the pitch clock, the league is enforcing the MLB’s new shift rules which encourages more defensive plays in the infield.

On top of the shift rules, the Pioneer League is requiring all 10 teams to chalk out a ‘pie slice’ from second base to the outfield grass. No fielder will be allowed to line up in the marked area.

Although the new shift rules will be applied to every Hawks game this season, it will not have much impact on the team, according to Van Tol.

“We don’t shift that much so I don’t think that it’s going to really factor into anything we do or concern ourselves with.” Van Tol said.