By: Burke Broussard

Separate the Shortstops and Second-Basemen into two lines at their positions. Have a coach stand in front of the pitcher’s mound with a fungo and a bucket of balls. Have the shortstops go first, when you begin.

On command (“Go!”), have the shortstop break to the second-base bag as if he is covering a steal attempt, and have the second-baseman back up. Right as the shortstop is getting close to the bag and setting up for a throw, have the coach hit a fungo ball toward the bag. The shortstop must react to the hit ball, move his feet if necessary to catch the ball, and apply the tag on the imaginary runner. If the ball is hit past him, then the second-baseman should react to the ball and prevent it from going into the outfield.

This is a great drill, because the tagger does not know where the ball will go off the bat. He must concentrate on each one, since they are very likely to be in different locations each time. Have the fungo hitter mix up the hits from line drives and bouncers. Rotate, next time, where the second-baseman covers and shortstop backs up. This also saves your catcher’s arms, and you can get a lot of reps in a short span of time.