We attended our first high school softball game yesterday. Years ago, I played adult, slow-pitch, coed, city D-league, and have watched local farm-team baseball, but I didn’t know what the high school girls rules were. Here is a quick primer. 

This was fast underhand pitch and the game play was tight. First off, there are only 7 innings played per game. This is exactly how much interest and patience I have for team sports. The game we attended was 1 hour and 45 minutes. If one team is ahead by ten runs they call the game at five innings. There is a 10-second rule for batters to get back to the batter box once the pitcher has the ball. This isn’t a leisure activity. 

Like baseball, there are nine players on each team, there are innings with each team batting until they get three outs. Three strikes is out, and four balls walks. 

The pitching distance is 43 feet as compared to baseball’s 60 feet and there is no mound. The bases are 60 feet apart instead of 90. The outfield was only 200 feet. Everything was closer and faster.

Noticeably, the balls are 12-inch in circumference and bright yellow. Also the infielders wore protective face shields. There is no leading off the bases before the pitch is released, but there can be stealing. The tickets are reasonably priced, so catch a game in your area.