bunt defense?

It is important to get to know your league opponent tendancies - how they use bunt, hit & run, fake bunt/steal, fake bunt/slash, etc.  Your pitcher athleticism is also a factor.  Of course, game situation dictates most often.  

With man on 1st, no out, we go standard corners crash at bat tip.  Man on second (or 1st and 2nd), we may go standard but 3b doesn't release until contact (preventing R2 from stealing) or we may have 3b stay and have P cover 3b side unless bunted hard and close to the line.  We have the wheel in the playbook but I don't like the huge wholes it opens up in the defense.

With a lesser athletic P against a good bunting team, you are forced to crash both corners more often. 

Sometimes with standard R1 in a very high bunt probability, we'll crash extra hard to put extra pressure on bunter and give a chance at force at 2b.

I would think with man on first have the 3rd cover left side and pitcher cover right side

man on 2nd have first baseman crash because I have seen most RH hitters bunt towards first and pitcher covers left side and 2nd baseman covers first and 3rd base stays at third

I agree that wheel play with the short stop in the 5 hole leaves a huge gap

I was just trying to see if there is an easy bunt defense that is common

I used to just have the 3rd baseman crash all the time but then the other team would fake bunt steal on me

Keep it simple and easy to remember at that level and let athletes be athletes.  At 14/15, a former head of minor league IF instruction from MLB team (he is still a MiLB coach) taught our travel team 3 plays (and really, two because you likely won't be doing the Wheel play very often).

Before I lay out the 3, here is why it is so simple:

1b - charges on EVERY bunt (needs to be ready to cover middle if R1 and R2)

2b - covers first on EVERY bunt (making sure he does a banana arc in toward home - vs. straight line - so as to watch for successful push bunt b/w P and 1b)

SS - covers 2b on every bunt (except for Wheel Play)

P - covers middle with R1 and 3b side/middle with R1 and R2

3b - charges hard with R1 only; with R1 and R2, he angles toward 2b to keep R2 honest and make sure he is not stealing, then he reads the ball and charges hard and fields only the ball that is bunted right down the line (ie, P can't get to); otherwise, quickly works his way back to 3b for shot at force

So, 3 plays:

1. R1 - [1b charge, 2b covers 1st, SS covers 2b]..3b and P charge, C (after knowing he will not field the bunt hustles to cover 3b in case R1 is fast and doesn't stop at 2b), LF back up 3b, CF back up 2b, RF back up 1b

2. R1 and R2 - [1b charge, 2b covers 1st, SS covers 2b]....P charges heavily favoring 3b side, 3b charges a few steps and gets back to cover 3b UNLESS successful bunt right down line that he must field (and tip of the cap to batter), LF back up 3b, CF back up 2b, RF back up 1b

3. Wheel Play (R1 and R2) - 1b charge, 2b covers 1st, P and 3b charge, SS wheels to 3b making certain he and P are synched up such that he gets a jump on the runner to get there in time, CF covers 2b, RF backs up 1b and LF backs up 3b

1, 2 and (every once in a while, 3)...also, here is a great website I referred to often back when I was coaching son's travel ball teams - http://www.theoleballgame.com/bunting.html 

One caveat on above is the obvious (I think) point that although 1b is charging on every bunt, if it is clearly bunted to 3b side and 1b can easily get back to cover 1b, he can/should.  1b and 2b just need to be in synch and communicate.

I know it's really obvious, but the best bunt defense is the one that you practice all the time.  If the defense does its job, even well-executed bunting doesn't do much damage. It's the E's that kill you.