Become a Better Bunter by Reading the Defense

Has your coach ever given you the bunt and you’ve wondered whether you should bunt to the left or the right side of the field?

Learn what to watch for so you can do better at the plate.

While hitting can seem really hard it helps to remember that the defense only has 9 players to cover a LOT of area – a whole lot of area!! The problem that the defense has is they have to make some hard choices. They’ve got to either cover an area on the field, or leave that area and cover a base. If we can figure out when the defense is going to leave a part of the field open and uncovered, or leave it early to cover a base – then we can hit the ball there.

So, to give yourself a better chance of getting a hit, I want to show you how to look at the defense and figure out where the defense is the weakest. We’re going to look at 2 different defensive situations that involve a runner at 1^st base.

In Picture 1 you can see a runner on 1^st, and a big yellow circle on the right side of the infield. That’s to show the open space left by the 1^st baseman who is playing back near 1^st. This is important because it tells you 2 things:

The defense they’re in is called 1 Back – for 1^st base back – and means that the 3^rd baseman is playing in for the bunt but the 1^st baseman is back. So the open part of the infield is in front of the 1^st baseman – which is the best place to bunt.
It also tells you something very important about who will have to cover 2^nd base. Because the 1^st baseman is covering 1^st base, the 2^nd baseman must cover 2^nd base. You can see this in Picture 1a – where the yellow arrow shows the 2^nd baseman already moving to cover 2^nd base and leaving the red circled area open for you to hit into.

better bunter reading defenses picture 1 1a yellow circle 1st 2nd baseman

Now, let’s look at another defense and see what we can learn from it. In Picture 2 you can see the Red arrow pointing to the runner at 1^st, and the yellow arrows show that this time the 1^st baseman and the 3^rd baseman are both playing in. This tells us 2 things:

The defense is expecting a bunt which is why they are playing in.
But, because 1^st base is playing in the 2^nd baseman must cover 1^st, and the Shortstop must cover 2^nd.

better bunter reading defenses picture 2 2a red arrow runner 1st 3rd baseman

So what we see in Picture 2a, is the batter push bunting the ball to the SS and forcing her (the SS) to field the ball, which means can’t also cover 2^nd base. The Red circle around 2^nd base shows the base is wide open since the 2^nd baseman had to cover 1^st (since the 1^st baseman was playing in), and the SS couldn’t cover 2^nd base because she’s fielding the ball.

While this might all sound very complicated to read, hopefully the pictures make it easier to understand. Just remember that the defensive players must either field the ball or cover a base – they can’t do both! So use your knowledge of the defense to make them choose the wrong thing!!

For more help with defensive strategy, check out the following: