www.soonertimes.com

After the OU game Sat I was watching the Alabama-South Carolina game with SC up 3-1 and about the 4-5 inning SC walked the 1st Bama hitter. For some unknown reason SC calls time and brings in a new catcher and switches a couple player around on the field. While the umpire is informing Bama of the changes, the SC pitcher starts throwing to the new catcher. The 2nd batter of the inning comes to the plate and the umpire informs the batter then the SC coach that the count in 3-0 on the new batter. After all is said and done and the commentators 1 of which was a former player had no idea why the count was 3-0 even before the new batter came to the plate, It was finally found out that while all the changes were taking place the pitcher had thrown 3 warmup pitches to the new catcher. They showed the rule and since the catcher position was changed and not the pitcher no extra pitches can be thrown. The exception is if the pitcher might get hit by a ball, then the umpire can approve a few warmup pitches to see if she can continue. The only warmup pitches allowed are at the start of an inning or a new pitcher come into the game.

Side note to that is that after the batter with the 3-0 count was walked SC takes a timeout they put the starting catcher and the other players back in the same positions as they were before that one batter was walked. Lots of head scratching going on in the press box. SC did win the game 3-1.