Length of regulation field

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I have looked everywhere for the answer to this and have not been able to pinpoint any concrete numbers.

What is a regulation size softball field for HS? I have seen distances from 190' to 235', 200' to 225', 175' to 225' on the internet.

Second question - is the lowest number for Left and Right Field? Nothing ever specifies that.

Thanks for the help.

 

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Our highschool is 195 in left, 200 in center and 190 in right. I know most the highschools are different but are usually around the 200' mark in center.

 

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Minimum is 200.....

I have seen colleges go to 205 or 210... but that would be 210 in left - 210 in center and 210 in right.

With today's bats... and if it was a "new" field... I'd do 215 all the way around.. for the future.

 

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High School is not 200 feet. I will look up the ruling after Lunch. But I do believe the Minimum is 185.

http://www.midcontinentathletics.com/rules/NFHS_Rules/2010 NFHS Softball Rules.pdf

Here is the official rule

 

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I will take 185 any day of the week lol. Seriously what I have never understood is that gold regulation from what I have seen is 225, college is 200........... can someone answer me why?

Tim

 

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There is no set regulation number ... fields and space come in different shapes and sizes in both baseball and softball. The most common length I see is 200' though.

 

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High School is not 200 feet. I will look up the ruling after Lunch. But I do believe the Minimum is 185.

http://www.midcontinentathletics.com/rules/NFHS_Rules/2010 NFHS Softball Rules.pdf

Here is the official rule

Section 1 ART. 3 . . . Recommended field distances are designated as follows:
a. From home plate to the nearest obstruction on fair ground may uniformly
range from:
1. 185 feet-235 feet for female or male fast pitch

ART. 1 . . . The softball field shall be level and contain an infield diamond and
an outfield area that may or may not be enclosed by a fence.

 

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Well, here's the delimma: Our HS is getting a new Fball stadium and everything that can possibly go with that. Well, they are taking out SBall field, originally it was going to be started after our season, but now is going to start as soon as it all thaws out. So, we are going to be moved to our local city park that has 7 mini replicas of MLB fields and 2 large not as nice adult sball fields.

We would like to use Jacobs fields which has a score board (the others don't). The measurements for the outfield is LF 185', CF 204', and RF is only 168'. I have no idea why RF would be shorter.

Do you think this would be ok to play HS Sball games on?

There is another field, Crosley, but we have to do more work on it, put in a fence because there currently isn't one, no score board, and the backstop is much bigger (deeper and wider) than usual for a SBall field. I just want to know if fighting for Jacobs field is worth my time since LF and RF don't match and one is a much shorter than it should be.

Thanks.

 

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I forgot to add that we are getting a new field out of this at the HS, just won't be ready till next year. It is also supposed to be much nicer and include lights, which we have never had. I haven't seen the specs for it, but I hope we get a Sball field that is just as decked out as the Fball Stadium (w/ new weight room, concessions, bathrooms, scoreboard, locker rooms, seating, turf field, fenced in track area, press box, etc.). I think the total cost is around 1.5 mil. But they are saving money by putting the old Fball lights on the new Sball field, yep the ones that were torn down by the tornado.

 

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Use it and recruit lots of left-handed power hitters!

Seriously though, that's a tough one. If you are talking about being there just one season as a short-term inconvenience, I wouldn't see any issue with "Jacobs", and everyone would just have to understand. But it sounds like you're talking about a long-term arrangement and I think you'll be disappointed with and get some grief from other schools on those short down the line dimensions especially in RF.

Why am I anticipating some Title IX comments??

Oops ... just saw your added post about getting a new field the following year ... in that case, I'd just go with Jacobs (or shouldn't it be Progressive now??).

 

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Our High School plays on a community field that has 185' down the lines and 195' in center. In 318 plate appearances we hit 5 home runs last year.

The college fences are currently around 200' with a discussion to go to 225' for the NCAA tournaments. There are no restrictions as to distance or height at the high school level and I suspect just recommendations at the college level. The NCAA is not going to make everyone move the fences out on these existing fields.

We do take **** from the visiting teams about our band-box field but a short fence plays both ways. Go play and let-em swing for the fences. You may never want to go to a full 200' boring field with 4' fences.

 

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My lefty would love to play on that field. Who needs to slap at 165. Tim how many HR would Britt have?

 

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From the 2011 NFHS Softball Rulebook

ART. 1 . . . The softball field shall be free of obstructions between the foul lines, level and contain an infield diamond and an outfield area that may or may not be enclosed by a fence.

ART. 2 . . . Mandated field distances are designated as follows:​

a. Bases shall be 60 feet apart for games using the 12-inch ball and 65 feet for games using the 11-inch ball.​

b. (F.P.) The rear tip of home plate and the front edge of the pitcher's plate shall be 43 feet for female fast pitch softball and 46 feet for male fast pitch softball.​

c. (S.P.) The rear tip of home plate and the front edge of the pitcher's plate shall be 46 feet for males or females playing slow pitch softball when using the 12-inch ball, and 50 feet for female slow pitch using the 11-inch ball.
NOTE: By state association adoption in slow pitch, the pitching distance shall be 50 feet when using a 12-inch ball.​

d. (F.P.) A circle 16 feet in diameter shall be drawn with its center at the midpoint of the front edge of the pitcher's plate.​

ART. 3 . . . Recommended field distances are designated as follows:​

​

a. From home plate to the nearest obstruction on fair ground may uniformly range from:​

1. 185 feet-235 feet for female or male fast pitch
2. 250 feet-275 feet for female slow pitch
3. 275 feet-300 feet for male slow pitch​

b. From the top of the outfield fence to the ground should be 6 feet to 8 feet c. Outside (foul ground) the foul lines and between home plate and the backstop ? an unobstructed area with a distance of 25 feet to 30 feet​

d. On-deck circles shall be a safe distance from home plate with a recommended distance of 30 feet, if space allows.​

e. The width of all chalk lines is recommended at 2 1/2 inches.​

f. Foul lines extend from the batter?s boxes, beyond the bases, to the outfield fence. When an outfield fence is not present, foul lines should extend to a minimum of 185 feet.​

 

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Note that field size is recommended vs. the mandated distances e.g., on base lengths ...

 

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but I hope we get a Sball field that is just as decked out as the Fball Stadium (w/ new weight room, concessions, bathrooms, scoreboard, locker rooms, seating, turf field, fenced in track area, press box, etc.). I think the total cost is around 1.5 mil. But they are saving money by putting the old Fball lights on the new Sball field, yep the ones that were torn down by the tornado.

I think that (in RED) is a really big dream, because SB just wont bring that kind of money in tickets and fans.

 

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My lefty would love to play on that field. Who needs to slap at 165. Tim how many HR would Britt have?

Probably not enough to make dad happy lol

 

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I do believe the College World Series went to 200' down the lines and 225' in Center last year because of the HR's in previous years, but I think the ladies hit more last year than the year before. I personally like ASA and 200' all the way around!

 

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SBFamily our field is 185' not 165'; we need every foot! (We did build a 135' field for the tiny kids but decided not to use it for FPSB when the 12 year olds were putting them out.)

The 185' fence is in range of most good players with a decent swing. The pitchers have to keep the ball down and breaking. Anything down the middle is a danger of leaving the park. However even at our level this distance has not turned into a home run derby. More than 200' at the high school level will take the home run out of the game while introducing the triple.

Got a bunch of speed and little power then move the fences back and let them run. If you have a ton of power and no speed bring the fences in and watch the ball fly. Maybe you can put them on rollers and just tune up your field for each opponent. They don't have a rule for that yet and certainly major league baseball has done this in the past.

Bulldog: Hope your District spends half the care on your softball field that I'm sure they will spend on new football field.

 

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Oh, I know we won't get all the stuff the Fball team is getting.....that was just a dig.

The project has grown to an unbelievable mirage of buildings, designs, parking (garage?), and landscaping, etc. I think its going to look weird next to our OLD school. In the fall we had a storm that did damage to the scoreboard, bleachers, lights, press box and concession stand. The dads (not being sarcastic) raised money, got donations, and now ESPN has given like $700K, oh yea and the insurance money to rebuild. So they are now tearing down everything and building the stadium of dreams (lol). They needed more space so they are also tearing out the SBall field and moving it. So I hope that we do get a very nice field (with bathrooms this time and lights!!!). Anything would be an improvement to what we had.

 

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Bulldog Coach,

if you get lights, make sure you use them. At Beavercreek HS, their Fast pitch diamond has lights but they have only been used once for high school and that was 10 years ago. With daylight savings time being moved up, darkness is not the issue it used to be several
years ago. Also, the April and very early May nights are chilly and not very comfortable.

Now, if they played fast pitch in the fall, that would be a different story.