intentional walk? The mighty, and tough guys can say put him on, just that easy! But the ladies have to physically go through the process of walking the batter intentionally. How fair is that? I think it should be uniform and either both baseball ⚾️ and softball 🥎 have the same rule or do away with the rule all together. I have seen plenty of coaches just pitch around the hitter and they are normally successful in doing so. At least in this way, you still have the slim chance of them going after bad pitches. Additionally, when a pitcher gets to 3-0, most coaches will give the sign to take the fourth pitch. I’ve seen a pitcher get a strike on it, and then sneak another pitch in that is outside but hits the corner for a strike. Then another border line pitch and they get the call strike or the batter takes first. Top pitchers like Canady are used to placing the ball where they want it. In that case last night, it may have been better to pitch around the hitter. But you can’t intentionally walk a batter with just pitching the ball high with the catcher standing directly behind the plate. Most good hitters can hit the rise ball anyway, and in this case, Atwood did to win the game in the bottom of the 6th. The little things in softball and baseball are why teams lose games. They are hard to factor in because they always seem to come at the least expected moment. Potentially, not practicing intentional walks may have cost Texas Tech and Canady the national championship! The “little” things, a game of inches as the old saying goes!