I Love Softball/Walkthrough

Team selection

• Be sure to pick a good team, especially one with strong pitchers. Coconuts (ここなつ) of Kyushu (九州) is likely one of the best.
• While a low pitcher ERA is generally better than a high ERA, there are pitchers with higher ERAs that are better than pitchers with lower ones. The same probably holds for batting averages as well (except of course higher averages are better than lower ones).

Batting and baserunning

• Bunting is probably best avoided. It results in foul balls too often, and remember, unlike with normal swings, you can get a third strike if you foul when bunting.
• As with any baseball game, if there are less than two outs, don't advance to the next base if it looks extremely likely that the ball will be caught. This applies for foul balls too! If a fielder is in the path of the ball and just standing there with her glove raised, she is virtually certain to catch the ball. (This is less likely if she's standing right against the back fence, but be careful regardless!)
• The AI is dumb and will often throw the ball to the base ahead of where it should throw it. Pay attention to where they're throwing the ball to see if you can get an extra base.
• However, a fielder running with the ball to tag you will always be faster than your baserunners. When you're on defense, use this to your advantage; when on offense, don't get too cocky!
• If the pitcher is throwing wild pitches, see if you can deliberately get hit by the ball to get a free base. The game doesn't know you're doing it on purpose.
• Sometimes the AI fielders go nuts and spin in place until the ball lands. Be sure to keep running while this happens!
• Once there are two outs, baserunners no longer need to "tag up" (waiting to see if the ball will be caught before advancing).

Pitching and fielding

• It takes a while to get used to fielding, especially since your outfielders are often offscreen. Learning to play this game well is not for the impatient!
• Again, a fielder running with the ball to tag a runner will always be faster than the runner.
• When there are two outs, always go for the quickest, easiest out you can get rather than taking extra risks to throw out somebody running for third or home.
• Relieve pitchers when (and only when) their performance starts to degrade. You might want to hold off for a while if your reliever isn't as good and you want her to last for the rest of the game. Don't relieve a pitcher just because they're sweating or they show an unhappy icon; all that matters is how fast and accurately they throw the ball.
• Not all pitchers are worth using. For example, Coconuts (ここなつ) of Kyushu (九州) only have two good pitchers; there is never any need to use the third or fourth, since their best is still not as good as the first two pitchers' worst.
• After winning a game, be sure to use a different starting pitcher than your previous game's starting pitcher. For some reason, if you don't, your starting pitcher will be much less effective. (If you're starting the game using a password, there is no need to do this.) Note that it's OK to use your previous starting pitcher as a reliever, just not as the starting pitcher again. If you do this, your starting pitcher will always be fresh even if she got tired out as a reliever in the previous game.