⚾Rules Baseball / Softball

Baseball and softball are bat-and-ball sports played between two teams of nine players (baseball) or nine to ten players (softball), who alternate between defense (in the field) and offense (at bat). The team at bat tries to score points called "runs" by sending its batters around the four bases, while the defense tries to record three outs to take its turn at bat. Softball is a variant derived from baseball, played on a smaller field with an underhand pitch.

Score more points ("runs") than the opponent. A run is recorded each time a player on the batting team legally and successively touches first, second and third base, then returns to home plate before three outs end that team's turn at bat.

• •Two teams alternate: one bats (offense), the other defends in the field.
• •The pitcher throws the ball toward the batter; in baseball the pitch is overhand, in softball it must be underhand.
• •The batter has three strikes before being out, and four balls (pitches outside the zone) earns a free base on balls.
• •After putting the ball in play, the batter becomes a runner and tries to reach at least first base.
• •The defense puts runners out by catching the ball on the fly, touching the base before the runner (force out), or tagging the runner with the ball.
• •Three outs end the half-inning; the teams then switch roles.
• •A baseball game lasts nine innings, a softball game lasts seven.

The scoring unit is the run. A run is scored when a runner advances in order to first, second and third base, then touches home plate, without being put out and before the third out of the inning. Several runners may score on a single play; a home run hit out of the field lets the batter and all runners already on base score. If the third out is a force out (or the batter-runner is out before first base), no run scores on the play, even if a runner crossed home plate before the out.

Baseball: 9 innings, each inning split into a top half (visiting team bats) and a bottom half (home team bats). Softball: 7 innings on the same principle. If the score is tied at the end of regulation, extra innings are played until the tie is broken. Many competitions apply a run-ahead rule ("mercy rule") that ends the game if one team leads by a large margin (e.g. 10 runs) after a set number of innings.

The team that has scored the most runs at the end of the regulation number of innings wins. There is no draw in an official game: if the score is tied after 9 innings (baseball) or 7 innings (softball), extra innings are played until one team leads at the end of a complete inning. A run-ahead rule may award the win early.