What to expect when your child moves to 11U Baseball

The move to 11U baseball is exciting and full of questions for players and parents!

This article will hopefully answer any questions you might have about 11U baseball.

The first thing most parents will notice is the increase in registration fees. Most zones in the city have similar fee structures. In the Cardinals zone the fees go from $325 for Sr. Rally Cap to $450 for 11U. 

The following are the extra expenses for 11U:

  1. Evaluation fee $40 (Evaluations will be explained further along in this article)
  2. Diamond rentals: In Sr & Jr Rally Cap the diamonds used are free to rent from the City of Saskatoon. In 11U the diamonds played on (Kilburn and Sifton) are diamonds that are classified as Charge Sports Fields by the city. These diamonds cost $30.75 per hour to rent. With games allocated for 1 ½ hours the cost would be $45 a game or $22.50 per team. Teams will average 20 games per season.
  3. Umpires: We try to get 2 umpires per game, the cost per umpire is $35/game
  4. Diamond Maintenance: Even though the diamonds are rented from the city, Baseball Saskatoon has to provide people and equipment to prepare the diamonds for play (Bases, Chalk, Gator, Spike Drag, Rakes, Etc.) 
  5. Extra games on top of the 20 regular season league games: Single A gets a tournament and AA & AAA get exhibition games. All divisions also get a double knock out year end tournament.

EVALUATIONS:

Unlike Jr. & SR. Rally Cap, where teams are picked based on which players would like to play with each other, 11U has an evaluation process that helps get players playing at a skill level that matches their abilities. There are 4 skill levels in 11U.

AAA – These are teams that have the highest skill level of baseball players (for this age group). There is a large commitment required by all involved in this level, this includes; players, families and coaches. Typically these teams will practice 2-3 times per week and have 2 league games per week. Most weekends these teams will play in either a tournament or have exhibition games. These exhibition games and tournaments will be in Saskatoon or other cities and towns in Saskatchewan.

AA Tier 2-3

 – These are teams that have players with skills that are just below the AAA level. There is a good chance that the AAA team(s) will ask a few of these players to practice with them and play with them should they be short players. The commitment is similar to AAA but may not be as many practices/exhibition games/tournaments.

AA Tier 3-4

 – As you can imagine the skill level of these teams is just below AA Tier 2 and some players may have enough skills to be competitive in AA Tier 2 or even AAA. Other players would not have the necessary skills to be competitive at AAA but may have enough to play at a lower end AA Tier 2 level.

A 

– This level is made up of kids with the least skill level of this age group. The commitment is not as intense as the AAA level BUT players, parents and coaches should commit to attending all scheduled games and at LEAST ONE practice per week. Many of the players in this league may be new to baseball and just require time, patience and coaching to elevate their skill level. It is important that parents and coaches make a commitment to these players towards their development and their baseball experience!

EVALUATION PROCESS:

Before the season starts, all players wanting to play 11U will go through an evaluation process to determine their skill level so that they can be placed on a team that will give them the best opportunity to enjoy playing baseball and be competitive with other teams of equal skill level. 

Note: If your child is new to baseball or you feel their skill level at this point would be the A level, you may opt to skip evaluations and have them placed in the A level. We offer this option as some kids may feel nervous or intimidated if they end up in a group with higher skilled players. We don’t want their first experience to be a negative one!

For a more detailed explanation click Evaluation Process

WHEN ARE GAMES PLAYED?

Unlike Sr.& Jr. Rally Cap, there are no set days on which games are played. We like to have all league games played Sun – Fri with start times at 5:00 or 6:45.

Now and again games do get rescheduled on weekends. There are tournaments, city playoffs and Provincials that may be played on weekends. You can see the dates for these events by clicking here Baseball Saskatoon

WHERE ARE GAMES PLAYED? 

Games will be played at  locations; Kilburn Diamonds , Sifton Diamond or Riversdale Diamonds(Click for Google Map directions)

PLAYING RULES

The rules change from Sr Rally to 11U, for example; There is no pitching machine and players are starting to pitch. The distance between bases goes from 40’ to 60’. The rules will also vary from A to AAA (Advanced Sr. Rally plays the same rules as A) For a complete list of the rules click Here