La petite ligue de Baseball de Prescott-Russell little league baseball
The rules of Baseball
General Rules
Baseball is played on a diamond shaped field, with 2 teams of 9 players.
There is a minimum of 9 innings, but the game only ends when one of the two teams finishes with more points. Each round is played between an attacking team and a defending team.
The field is delimited by lines. The field is composed of 4 bases, the first of which is called home plate. The batter's box is on the home plate, the pitcher's mound is in front of it, near the infield. And further away is the outfield.
Finding your way around the field
Since players are not replaced when the opposition changes phases between offense and defense, it can be difficult to locate them.
The defending team lines up its 9 players on the field, while the attacking team advances only one batter.
The pitcher is placed in his mound in front of his catcher, in the batter's box behind home plate. Four defenders are placed in what is called the infield, around the pitcher on the 3 different bases and the fourth between 2nd and 3rd base. And behind them the last 3 defensive players divide up the outfield.
How to win?
The goal is to score runs. To do this, an attacking player must pass through each base until he reaches home plate again without being thrown out.
Each time the batter hits the ball, he becomes a runner and can try to reach the next bases.
The goal of the defensive team is to concede as few runs as possible by striking out 3 hitters. To do this, they can :
- get 3 strikes on a batter (make the batter miss 3 good pitches)
- catch a batted ball before it hits the ground or an obstacle
- touch the runner with the ball (in the glove or hand) between 2 bases
- make the ball reach a base before the runner
Particularities
The first particularity is the strike zone. It corresponds to a rectangle approximately between the chest and the knees of the batter representing the zone in which the pitch must be. The referee is the only one to judge, according to his appreciation, the strike zone.
If the batter attempts to hit, the strike zone is not taken into account, so it is also up to the batter to judge if he thinks the pitcher is at fault. 4 pitcher errors allow the batter to advance to first base.
Important details:
- There can only be one runner per base.
- A runner cannot be doubled by another runner.
- The runner can leave the base as soon as the ball leaves the pitcher's hand (he will be out if the batter misses).
- If the batter throws the ball out of play, it is a homerun, and he and all the runners circle the bases to home base.
- A game never ends in a tie.
