Here is one of the youth baseball practice drills that my younger players really enjoy at practice. It works on fielding along with the throwing. We call it the jug and bucket drill.
Jug and Bucket Drill
Set a 5 gallon bucket upside down on home plate. On top of that put a jug (laundry bottle, milk bottle) put some sand in the bottle so the wind doesn’t blow it off.
Have the players form two lines at a minimum behind the pitching mound. Have two people stand about 10 feet to each side of the bucket with a bat.
The person with the bat will hit the ball on the ground to their line and the player will field the ball properly and then throw it properly to try and hit the jug off the top of the bucket.
The team gets one point for hitting the bucket and 2 points for hitting the jug (no points if the ball hits the sand first).
The first team to 15 wins and the other team has to run the bases (of course the correct way). You can use any type of reward system.
We make sure that the players are throwing the ball properly and hard. This teaches them to react to the ball, field it cleanly and throw correctly.
They always ask if we are going to do the jug and bucket drill in practice today.