Crowding the plate
Coaches, what do you tell your players about crowding the plate. Today we played a game where nearly every batter on the opposing team was crowding the plate. The pitcher started by avoiding hitting the players so she would pitch low and outside. At one point there was a player that had her toes over the line of the batter's box and she was hunched over the top of the plate. Our coach called for a fastball over the plate and it hit the batter for a free walk. The next batter attempted to do the same thing so my daughter (the catcher) asked the umpire and he called a strike. The opposing team coach complained, but the ump held his ground. The batter did it again and our coach called for another fastball over the plate, which hit the player hard and she walked to first sobbing. My daughter called timeout, went to the mound and they eventually got out of the inning.
As a coach what do you do? Do you call for fastballs over the plate, potentially hurting a kid? Or do you call for it to go low and outside.