Baseball and Softball Field Dimensions by Age and Level
Base paths, pitching distances and fence distances from tee-ball to the full-size diamond, plus fast-pitch and slow-pitch softball, as the governing bodies publish them.
A baseball field is not one shape. It is a family of shapes that grow with the players using them, and the differences are not small — a ten-year-old's mound sits closer to the plate than a Little League Major mound, and an adult slow-pitch diamond has longer base paths than a fast-pitch one. Here are the published figures, organisation by organisation.
One rule before the numbers: every one of these can be modified by your local league, and several are explicitly optional even in the national rulebook. Little League, for instance, states that the outfield fence distance is a local league option. Check your own league's current rulebook before you paint a line.
The full-size diamond
The Official Baseball Rules describe the infield as a 90-foot square (Rule 2.01). The pitcher's plate sits 60 feet 6 inches from the rear point of home plate — that figure lives in Rule 2.04, not 2.01, which is worth knowing if you ever need to cite it. Home plate to second base measures 127 feet 3 and three-eighths inches, and the pitcher's plate is 10 inches above the level of home plate.
Fences are looser than people assume. Rule 2.01 sets a minimum of 250 feet to the nearest fence in fair territory, and says 320 feet or more down the lines with 400 feet or more to centre is preferable. The stricter numbers everyone quotes come from a note attached to the rule: a field built by a professional club after June 1, 1958 must provide at least 325 feet down each foul line and 400 feet to centre.
Youth baseball, by organisation
| Organisation and division | Base path | Pitching distance |
|---|---|---|
| Little League Tee Ball | 60 ft, local option 50 ft | 46 ft |
| Little League Minor and Major | 60 ft | 46 ft |
| Little League Intermediate 50/70 | 70 ft | 50 ft |
| Little League Junior and Senior | 90 ft, local option 75 ft for Junior | 60 ft 6 in, local option 54 ft for Junior |
| Cal Ripken Major/60 | 60 ft | 46 ft |
| Cal Ripken Major/70 | 70 ft | 50 ft |
| Babe Ruth Baseball, ages 13 and up | 90 ft | 60 ft 6 in |
| PONY Shetland, 6U | 50 ft | 38 ft |
| PONY Pinto, 8U | 60 ft | 38 ft machine and coach pitch, 40 ft player pitch |
| PONY Mustang, 10U | 60 ft | 46 ft |
| PONY Bronco, 12U | 70 ft | 50 ft |
| PONY Pony, 14U | 80 ft | 54 ft |
| PONY Colt, 16U and Palomino | 90 ft | 60 ft 6 in |
Two things stand out. First, the 50/70 diamond — 70-foot bases with a 50-foot mound — has become the standard bridge between the little diamond and the big one, and Little League, Cal Ripken and PONY all run a version of it at roughly the same age. Second, PONY's ladder climbs in smaller steps than most, adding an 80/54 stage at 14U that the other programmes skip.
Little League frames its own bigger divisions as adjustable. Its field specifications page describes the distance for 13-year-olds and up as "up to 90 feet", with a local league option to shorten Junior League to 75-foot bases and a 54-foot mound for regular season play.
High school and above
The NFHS publishes a free baseball field diagram showing 90-foot bases, a 60-foot-6-inch pitching distance, the 127-foot-3-and-three-eighths-inch diagonal and a 95-foot infield arc radius — the same geometry as the professional field. The diagram NFHS offers publicly is dated 2019, and the NFHS rules book itself is a paid publication, so confirm current figures against a purchased copy or your state association.
Youth and adult softball
Softball diamonds are 60-foot squares for essentially all fast pitch, with the pitching distance doing the work of matching age and level. Slow pitch stretches the bases out instead.
Little League Softball uses a 60-foot diamond in every division. Its pitching distances are 35 feet in the Minor division, 40 feet in Little League Majors, and 43 feet in Junior and Senior League.
USA Softball publishes a full distance table in its 2026 rule book. The adult rows:
| USA Softball adult division | Bases | Pitching | Fence min | Fence max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast pitch women | 60 ft | 43 ft | 200 ft | 250 ft |
| Fast pitch men | 60 ft | 46 ft | 225 ft | 275 ft |
| Slow pitch women | 70 ft | 50 ft | 265 ft | 300 ft |
| Slow pitch men | 70 ft | 50 ft | 300 ft | 325 ft |
| Slow pitch senior | 70 ft | 50 ft | 300 ft | 315 ft |
| Slow pitch coed | 70 ft | 50 ft | 275 ft | 300 ft |
Note the base path. Adult slow pitch under USA Softball runs on 70-foot base paths, not the 65 feet that circulates widely online. The 65-foot figure does appear in USA Softball's book, but for certain youth slow-pitch divisions rather than adult play.
USA Softball's youth fast-pitch distances scale by age on the same 60-foot diamond: 35 feet at 10-and-under, 40 feet at 12-and-under, and 43 feet from 14-and-under upward for girls. Boys' fast pitch moves to 46 feet at 14-and-under.
USSSA sets its adult slow-pitch geometry slightly differently. Its 2026 slow-pitch rulebook permits either 65 or 70 foot base paths in adult programmes and states that 70 feet is the preferred distance, with pitching at 50 feet for both men and women — the same mound distance USA Softball uses.
For high school softball, the NFHS publishes a rules-differences document giving 60-foot bases and a 43-foot pitching distance for female fast pitch, 46 feet for male fast pitch, and slow-pitch distances that key off ball size rather than division.
Fences are mostly recommendations
This is the single most misunderstood part of youth field specs. Little League states plainly that the distance from home plate to the outfield fence is a local league option, and then recommends 200 feet for the Major Division and below, 200 feet for Intermediate 50/70, 300 feet for Junior and Senior, and 200 feet for all softball divisions.
Worth knowing: Little League's own published materials are not perfectly consistent here. The field specifications page recommends 200 feet for softball across all divisions, while the softball field-layout diagrams label the foul lines with a 180-foot minimum and a 225-foot maximum. If you are building or re-marking a field, work from the layout PDF for your division and ask your district administrator.
Cal Ripken's facility guidance suggests 200 to 225 feet down the foul lines, with Babe Ruth's 13-to-18 fields at a 310-foot minimum and 320 feet preferred. PONY sets fair-play distances by division — 200 feet at Mustang, 250 feet at Pony 14U, 300 feet at Colt — alongside separate recommended home-run distances on the same pages.
Before you build anything
Three habits will save you trouble. Measure base paths from the back point of home plate as the rulebook directs. Treat every fence number above as a starting point for a conversation with your league, not a specification. And re-check the figures each season: sanctioning bodies revise dimensions, add divisions and change options year to year, and the version in an old coach's head is often two rule cycles out of date.
If you are working out which programme suits a player's age, our leagues directory is a good next stop, and the bat standards guide covers the equipment rules that travel with each division.
Sources
- Official Baseball Rules, 2026 Edition (Office of the Commissioner of Baseball)
- Little League — Field Specifications
- Little League — Baseball divisions and Softball divisions
- Little League — Field Layout, Major and Minor Baseball
- USA Softball — 2026 Official Rules of Softball
- USSSA — Slow Pitch rules and legal info
- PONY Baseball — divisions and field specifications
- Babe Ruth League — 2026 Local League Guide
- NFHS — Baseball field diagram and Softball field diagram