Sports photography settings? Nikon D3100?

I'm wanting to shoot aseball pictures and I can't seem to change the aper. Or the shutter. I know that the shutter should be >1/250 when taking pictures, but should the apertatue be high or low? Please list in details how to change each. Also, any other settings conserning light, etc, that I might need to know while shooting action on the field.

Thanks in advanced!
-Madison

Added (1). Also, the shutter is 1/1000 and the aperture ** is f 4.5. However the subject is too dark. When I turn on the flash, the shutter goes back to 1/200. How do I solve this?

I'm sorry but I'm not completely familiar with the D3100. On the D40 the setting would be set on aperture or shutter speed. You have a graph when you look in the camera that looks something like -… *… +. The - means the picture is underexposed (dark) and the + means it is overexposed (light). You want to get the bar as close to the middle * as possible. The rating works like this. If you have the ISO/ASA set to 400 and the automatic is giving you 1/60 sec at F 16. Then changing the F16 to F22 will require you to make the 1/60 to 1/45 or 1/30. If you go from F16 to F8 than you will go from 1/60sec to 1/120sec. There's a dial at the top right of the camera to change camera settings around in M A S P. The dial below that will let you changer your F stop and shutter speed. As far as the settings it will depend on how much light you have on the field and how well you want to freeze the action. 1/2000sec and stop a helicopter's propellers in mid flight. When I shot sports photography professionally, I usually used as low of a Fstop as possible.

Shutter speed priority @ 1/250. The camera will automatically set the aperture. Use the lowest ISO possible while still maintaining 1/250 sec. (or faster) exposures. Update - Just stop using the flash. Crank up your ISO.

Are you inside or out? Is it during the day or at night?

There are too many things that could be wrong that there's no one setting to fix everything. This is why some people should not get cameras.

I would like to suggest you do two things prior to trying to do anything more with your camera.

1.read the manual and find out how to change the various settings
2.learn about basic photographic exposure, specifically the relationship between shutter speed and aperture.

As to your flash going to 1/200. This is because that is the Auto synch speed and the max shutter speed which you can use it with. Anything faster and you will get parts of the shutter in the frame.
You would know this if you read the manual.

Your shutter and aperture settings depend entirely on the lighting conditions at the time (and also on what "effect" you want) if you need a high shutter speed in medium to low light then your aperture will need to be open wide.
To confuse you even more. You can raise the sensor sensitivity by upping the ISO. Which will allow faster shutter speeds in lower light.

All this you can learn by getting a book on basic photography.

I have a D5100, so it should be similar. On the top dial thing, there should be a boxed off section for.
M - Manual (almost complete control over settings.)
A - Aperture Priority (you choose the Aperture, and the Shutter Speed will automatically adjust)
S - Shutter Speed Priority (Opp.of above)
P - Program. I believe) Is basically like Auto mode, but you are able to adjust the ISO and the Aperture and Shutter speed should adjust based on that.)

When shooting Sports photography, you should use Shutter speed priority, and I believe that the speed should be 1/500 +

If you set it to that, the Aperture should automatically change for your settings. You also have to change the ISO yourself, too.

Please read the instructions that came with you camera.