What is Fall Ball?

Fall Ball provides an opportunity for girls to enhance game knowledge and continue developing their skills -- while, of course, still having fun.  

• Fall Ball provides an opportunity for travel players to continue playing past July. 

• It is also a great chance for girls that are transitioning to the traveling program to experience the enhanced competition.  

• Fall Ball, however, is not limited to girls thinking about traveling, it is available to girls of all levels and experience.

• Fall Ball teams are formed using the ages that girls will play at the following summer.  For example, if a girl played 10U in 2023, but will play at 12U in 2024, she will play at 12U for 2023 fall ball.  Therefore, its a great experience for girls to get acclimated to the next age group.

Schedule/Commitment

The Fall Ball season runs from early August thru the end of September.  Teams will likely have a practice each week to prepare for each week’s double headers.  In addition, we are working with the ERHS team to host association-wide "clinics" each week where high school players and/or coaches will come work with our girls.

The Fall ball season consists of four weekend double headers either on Saturdays (8U & 10U) or Sundays (12U & 14U) at noon and 1:30 or 3:00 and 4:30 (each game having a 65-minute time limit).  The final weekend of September is the State tournament, which is a one-day tournament with teams placed in tiers based on their fall ball performance.

 

Key dates

• Aug. 19-20 - 1st weekend of league play

• Aug. 26-27 - 2nd weekend of league play

• Labor day weekend - No games

• Sept. 9-10 - 3rd weekend of league play

• Sept. 16-17 - 4th weekend of league play

• Sept. 23-24 - State tournament weekend 

Age Chart

The age eligibility for our travel league is governed by Minnesota Softball and is listed below. PLEASE NOTE that Minnesota Softball is changing their age rules for the 2024 season, and those rules are effective for fall ball 2023 as well.  The rules historically used December 31 as the cutoff, but that is changing to August 31.  This should align teams with their natural school grade, rather than a birth year.

 

• The age of the player on August 31, 2023 is their playing age for the 2024 season.

• The 2024 Season begins for Fall League this year.

• What does this mean? It means if your child or players have a September, October, November, December birthdate, they can get an “extra” year at their age level.

• For questions regarding age rules, please see the 2024 Age Eligibility Calculator

  • https://mnsoftball.com/pages/cms/age-calculator

  • All you have to do is punch in any birthdate and it will tell you what the player is eligible to play.

  • You will see odd number ages like 11U. Since we all know that an 11U cannot play 10U, they would play 12U.

• Therefore, age groups are as follows:

  • 8U - birthday from 9/1/2014 to 8/31/2016

  • 10U - birthday from 9/1/2012 to 8/31/2014

  • 12U - birthday from 9/1/2010 to 8/31/2012

  • 14U - birthday from 9/1/2008 to 8/31/2010

 

Player and Team Selection
Teams will be formed from the pool of available players taking into account age, experience and skill level.  The goal is to create competitive teams based on skill and ability levels. 

• Fall ball is available to girls of all levels and experience.

• We will use tryout data for 2024 traveling teams to set more competitive 2023 fall ball teams. However, if you are only playing fall ball, and do not intend to play 2024 travel, you should not attend tryouts.

• Fall ball is still optional. Girls who want to play other fall/winter sports can do so, without affecting their summer 2024 status.

• Teams will not be the same for 2023 fall and 2024 summer. 

• Fall ball teams will be selected competitively, using a A/B/C approach rather than a balanced approach. This approach will use tryout data, and historical team placements/results/evaluations, as well as factoring in pitching and catching needs.

• If you want to play 2024 travel, please sign up separately. 

Our goal is to have 11-13 girls per team, with similarly-skilled players, so that all girls are able to develop skills and experience success.

Fall Ball is structured to allow girls to play at the level they will play at next summer.  For example, if a girl played 10U in 2023, but will play at 12U in 2024, they will play at 12U for 2023 fall ball.  This provides a great opportunity for girls to get used to the larger ball and different pitching distances, or gives an opportunity for girls to experience kid pitch initially (for 8Us aging up to 10U).

 

Uniforms

Players will be expected to provide/wear their own black pants, and either black or Vegas gold belt and socks. ERAA will be providing custom jersey tops, that will be used for the Fall Ball season.

 

Volunteer DIBS

We are hoping to host regular season games and possibly multiple tiers of the State tournament in Woodbury.  If selected, we will need families to help with field prep and concessions and will have (hopefully minimal) DIBS requirements for each family.  In the past, this has been a great way for the program to earn money to be used to help fund our offseason training.

 

Registration Fee
The registration fee for Fall Ball includes a jersey and is:

• $200 for 10 through 14U

• $150 for 8U

 

Registration will close on July 15.  Please sign up early so we can plan accordingly.