Baseball player batting during a game

Spring Baseball Standards for Youth Competition Excellence

Our spring baseball standards set the foundation for youth competition in Southeastern Massachusetts. Southeastern Massachusetts Baseball Association's guidelines, refined since 2010, ensure fair play, safety, and consistent management in the Massasoit Spring League for local communities. We follow Babe Ruth league rules, adapted to local needs, and use modern safety protocols. These standards help us deliver unparalleled experiences for players ages 13U-18U and support coaches, umpires, and administrators in providing well coordinated games.

Umpires

Requirement:

  • Two patched adult umpires.
  • Patches must be worn and visible.

Responsibility:

  • The home team is responsible for providing two umpires who meet these requirements.

If a Town is Short an Umpire:

There is a twenty minute grace period for umpires to arrive, starting from orignal game time.  The home team should be in contact to ensure umpires enroute and to also verify with any late arriving umpires that they are able to stay for the full game duration (i.e. if they arrive at 5:45 for a 10U 5:30 game, they still need to stay the full two hours, or until 7:45).  If they cannot, the home team must take a forfeit.  If the umpire arrival is imminent and will take longer than the grace period, the visiting team is allowed to decided whether or not to wait and play they game or force the home team to forfeit.  If the visiting team does choose to wait longer and plays the game, then the game results are final - there are no reversions to a forfeit state once the visiting team decides to play.   

It is also the visiting coach's decision as to whether or not to play the game without the minimum standard (for example, one umpire does not show up but the other is present).  The SEMA Board does encourage all games where the minimum umpire requirement isn't met to be reported so that patterns can be identified and action taken to ensure this is an exception and not the rule.   

There is NO flexibility for playoff games.  All minimum requirements MUST be met or the home team automatically takes a forfeit and is eliminated from playoff contention.  Late arriving umpire rules from above apply to playoff games, but once the twenty minute grace period is over, if the umpire(s) have not arrived, it is an automatic forfeit.

Rosters and Call ups

There is only one division in the Massasoit Spring League.  If a town has enough players for multiple teams, they should be balanced.  If a town is found to have built A and B level teams, the A team will be disqualified from playoff contention. 

As there is only one division in the Massasoit Spring League, callups are limited to "call-overs" if a town has more than one team.  Only players who are rostered to a town within the same town are eligible to be called-over.  Coaches must inform the opposing coach of a call-over prior to the start of the game.  Call-overs cannot pitch or catch and must be placed at the bottom of the batting order.  Towns may callup 12U players from their town spring leagues, but these players must be identified before the start of the season and rostered to a Massasoit town team (they need not play regularly if they are callups).  If a team elects to add 12U players to the roster to fill this role, they should be properly flagged to the Massasoit league as call up players on the rostering form.  Once the season begins, rosters are locked and only players on an active Massasoit roster are eligible for play.  

Equipment

Responsibility

  • All participating member towns in the Massasoit League are responsible for providing fields, equipment, and baseballs for home games.
  • All batters and base runners must wear a helmet.

Baseballs

  • Acceptable baseball brands: Diamond DLL, Diamond DCR, or Rawlings RLLB (No dash variations).

Bats

  • Allowed bats: BBCOR or USA stamped bats.
  • Maximum bat length: 34 inches. Maximum BBCOR bat drop is -3.
  • Maximum bat barrel diameter: 2 5/8 inches.
  • Only composite barrel bats certified and marked BBCOR .50 or USA stamped bats are permitted.
  • Wood barrel bats conforming to Official Baseball Rule 1.10 specifications are allowed.

Catcher’s Masks

  • One-piece and two-piece (skull cap & mask) catcher’s masks are allowed.
  • All masks must have throat protection via a guard or mask extension.

Playoff Format

Qualification:  All teams in the Massasoit Spring League qualify for the playoffs.  Depending on the regular season standings and number of teams, seperate brackets may be created to foster even competition during the playoffs.

The SEMA Baseball Board will meet near the end of the regular season to review the standings and data.  Teams may be removed from playoff contention if multiple teams are present in the division from the same town and they are deemed to be unbalanced.

​​​Tiebreaker Rules

If teams have the same record:

Primary Tiebreaker:

  1. Head-to-Head performance.
  2. Fewest runs allowed against tied teams.
  3. Coin toss.

Three Team or More Tiebreaker:

  1. Head-to-Head performance.
  2. Fewest runs allowed against tied teams.
  3. Coin toss.

Format

Format will be announced upon completion of the league schedule based on number of teams and competition levels.  

The team with the highest seed will have home-field advantage during each round.

Game Rules:

  • All playoff games will be played to their conclusion, unless the slaughter rule penalty ends the game.
  • Games suspended due to darkness or weather-related issues will continue from the point of suspension.
  • All playoff games are scheduled during the week.
  • Weather-related delays will result in games being pushed back by one weekday. If games are postponed to Friday, further postponement will move the games to Monday.