Fastpitch softball
form of softball
Fastpitch softball, or simply fastpitch, is a form of softball played by both women and men. While the teams are most often segregated by sex, coed fast-pitch leagues also exist. Considered the most competitive form of softball, fastpitch is the format played at the Olympic Games. Softball was on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) program in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2020. Softball will return to the Olympic Games in 2028.
The fastpitch style is also used in college softball and other international competition. It is the form used in the American Women's Professional Fastpitch league, a women's professional league whose inaugural season began in June 2022.
Pitchers throw the ball with an underhand motion at speeds up to 79.4 miles per hour (127.8 km/h) for women. Karlyn Pickens set this record while playing for Tennessee in May 2025 at the 2025 NCAA Division I softball tournament.
The pitching style of fastpitch is different from that of slowpitch softball.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fastpitch softball” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.