Baseball Drills: Bunting : Sacrifice Bunt Target Game

Drill: Sacrifice Bunt Target Game

Purpose:
This is a fun game that helps players work on sacrifice bunting.

Equipment:
Throw down base, bat, helmet, 4 cones, and a baseball

Setup:
This works as a good station drill during batting practice. It can be run with 3 players or for younger players use 4 players and a coach or parent. Place the throw down base in an area where the group doesn't have to worry about being hit by a stray ball. That will serve as home plate. Place 2 cones on the first base side and 2 cones on the 3rd base side. These will serve as the target for the player bunting the ball. See setup image below.

Execution:
One player will bat and gets 10 pitches. The player doesn't have to bunt a bad pitch. 3 fielders are the umpires for strikes and ball.

The player in the middle will act as the pitcher. Have the pitcher take a stretch and throw so the player bunting can work on getting into the proper position as well as bunting.

Each bunt that makes it between the cones is worth a point.

After 10 pitches the players will rotate one position. After all players have had 10 bunts the player with the most points is the winner.

Things to watch for:

This game can be cause arguments if a player doesn't play fairly. This normally happens if a player feels he didn't get good pitches to bunt. When it's his turn to pitch he may try to get it past the player or make bad pitches on purpose. You may want to assign a parent to watch the drill and let you know if there were any problems. I use this as an opportunity to discuss the importance of fair play with groups of players that are having difficulty. These are usually the same players that get mad at the umpire because he is not being fair. If there are many problems, have a parent take the role of pitcher and make it a 3 player drill.