Baseball Scorecard

To get a PDF, click Print Form below and choose Save as PDF as the destination (Firefox calls it Save to PDF). The file holds the scorecard alone, without this article around it. Download as Image gives you a PNG instead, handy for a group chat or a coaches' game sheet on a tablet.

This scorecard tracks nine batters across nine innings with columns for at-bats, runs, hits, RBI, and walks. The bottom section records inning-by-inning run totals for both teams. Print it or copy it to a spreadsheet.

Scorekeepers use shorthand because the next pitch comes quickly, and a full sentence per play would never keep up. Every fielding position has a number (1 through 9), and every type of hit, out, or baserunning event has a common abbreviation. Memorize them once. After that, scoring becomes automatic.

Position Numbers

On a baseball scorecard, every defensive position is recorded as a number rather than a letter. The number 6 is the shortstop, 4 is the second baseman, and 3 is the first baseman. Numbering each fielder lets you note who handled the ball using just digits. These nine numbers never change.

These numbers are the foundation of scorekeeping notation. In a "6-3" putout, the shortstop (6) fielded the ball and threw it to the first baseman (3). A "4-6-3" double play means the second baseman fielded it, flipped to the shortstop, who threw to first. For a quick 1-9 chart with abbreviations and the DH 10th position, see our position numbers reference.

Scoring Abbreviations

MLB's scoring rules do not fix these symbols, and neither do the NCAA's. MLB's own scorekeeping guide notes that many fans keep their own notations, and its symbol list differs from some of the symbols below. HP stands for hit by pitch there, FO means a force out, and a called third strike is a backwards K. Both versions are listed below. Pick one set and keep it all season, so every card in your binder reads the same way.

Scoring a baseball game is straightforward once you know the abbreviations. Each batter gets a cell in the scorecard grid where you record what happened during their at-bat. One cell, one at-bat. Here is the process, broken down by situation.

Recording Hits

Write the hit type in the batter's cell for that inning. A single to left field becomes "1B" with an optional note about direction (e.g., "1B 7" means a single fielded by the left fielder). For extra-base hits, mark how far the runner advanced: "2B" for a double, "3B" for a triple, "HR" for a home run. Note the direction when it helps.

Recording Outs

Outs use position numbers to show who made the play. A routine ground ball to shortstop thrown to first is "GO 6-3", or plain "6-3" in MLB's guide. A fly ball caught by the center fielder is simply "8". Save FO for a force out, which is what the letters mean on MLB's list. A strikeout swinging is "K", while a called strikeout (looking) is "Kc" or a backwards K in traditional notation.

Recording Baserunning

Follow each runner in their own at-bat cell. Treat the corners of the cell as the bases, the way MLB's guide does, with first base in the lower right, and mark each advance in the matching corner. A stolen base is "SB", caught stealing is "CS". When the runner scores, circle the bottom of the cell and write inside it who drove them in.

End-of-Inning Totals

After three outs, count the runs scored that inning and record them in the Inning Runs section at the bottom. At the end of the game, tally each batter's stats: count their at-bats (exclude walks, HBP, sacrifice bunts, sacrifice flies, and awards of first base for interference or obstruction), runs, hits, RBI, and walks. The hit-type breakdown (1B, 2B, 3B and HR) from the scorecard feeds directly into power metrics like slugging percentage, where each hit counts by its base value rather than as a single H.

Reading scoring notation in the abstract only goes so far. Here is a complete half-inning scored play by play, so you can see how each abbreviation works in context.

Top of the 3rd Inning

Inning summary: 1 run, 2 hits, 0 errors. Record "1" in the 3rd-inning column of the Inning Runs row.

If you keep the book for a youth or high school team, most of this table is background. Two rows are your job at every game: the pitch count, and the check that proves your card adds up. On 28 September 2026 we read Rule 9 of MLB's Official Baseball Rules (2026 edition)(opens in new tab) and its How to Keep Score(opens in new tab) guide, the NCAA baseball statisticians' manual(opens in new tab) (Rule 10 of the college rules book) and Regulation VI of Little League's pitching rules(opens in new tab). The table sets out what each one asks a scorekeeper to write down.

Most Little League cells read "Not in Regulation VI" because that regulation covers pitching only. It means the page is silent on the point, not that the league has no rule. High school is not in the table. For its pitch limit, look to your state: since NFHS revised Rule 6-2-6(opens in new tab) in 2016, each state association sets its own limit by the number of pitches thrown, with required rest between outings. Ask yours for the numbers before the season starts.

Pitch Count: Little League Makes It the Scorekeeper's Job

Little League turns the pitch count into a scorekeeping duty. If your league names you its official pitch count recorder, either manager or any umpire can ask you for the current count. A high school limit is counted in pitches too, so the same habit works there.

The scorecard above has no room for pitches, so keep them on this separate sheet. Give each pitcher a row and each inning a box. Tally pitches in the box as the inning goes and write that inning's pitch total when it ends. The current count is then that tally plus the boxes before it, and you can answer a mid-inning question without recounting. The daily limits and rest days that number triggers live in our pitch count tracker.

Prove Your Card After Every Game

The "Proving the box score" row is worth a minute after every game. Count your team's plate appearances (every at-bat, walk, hit batter, sacrifice and interference or obstruction award). That total should equal runs plus runners left on base (the runners still on base when each inning ended) plus the other team's putouts. If it does not, a cell on your card is wrong.

A baseball scorebook is a permanent record of how a game unfolded. While the box score tells you the final numbers, the scorecard captures the sequence: who batted when, how runs scored, which fielders made key plays.

The modern box score it feeds dates to 1859. That year Henry Chadwick, a cricket reporter who had switched to baseball, formulated his first modern box score, according to the Baseball Hall of Fame(opens in new tab). He also picked K for a strikeout, the last letter of "struck", and scorers still write it today.

Building a Printable Scorebook

A scorebook is a stack of these cards kept in order. Print one card per team for every game, or two if you score both lineups, and file them by date in a binder. Fill in the Team, Date, Opponent and Field line before the first pitch so the binder stays searchable. By the end of the season you have a complete record of every at-bat, and the Inning Runs rows give you each game's line score at a glance.

Coaching Applications

Coaches use scorecards to spot patterns that box scores miss. If your leadoff hitter reaches base in four out of five innings but only scores once, the scorecard reveals where the offense stalls. If the opposing pitcher gives up hits to left-handed batters in the 4th inning onward, you can plan pinch-hit matchups accordingly.

Pitcher performance is easier to read when you convert scorecard data into a standardized number. The ERA calculator takes each pitcher's earned runs and innings off your card and gives you one rating to compare across games. For tracking individual player statistics across a full season, pair your scorecard with a baseball stat sheet.

Youth coaches find scorecards especially useful for equal playing time tracking and lineup decisions. Recording who played which positions and how many at-bats each player received keeps your program fair and transparent to parents. To plan who bats and plays where before the game, print a lineup from the batting order template.

Fan and Parent Use

Parents who score their child's games build a detailed record of development over a season. You can look back at April's scorecard and see concrete improvement by July: fewer strikeouts, more walks drawn, and better on-base percentage reflected in the notation.

Yes, and the simplest version is already on this page. On the printable scorecard, Copy as Table puts the blank grid on your clipboard with a tab between cells, so Excel and Google Sheets both read the paste as proper rows and columns. Add a SUM under the AB, R, H, RBI and BB columns and the totals fill in as you type.

Dedicated scorekeeping apps go further and log the game as you tap. Whether one is worth it depends on how often you score.

When Paper Works Best

• Single games where you want a physical keepsake
• Tournaments with limited phone battery or connectivity
• Teaching a new scorekeeper, where pencil and eraser forgive every mistake
• Rec league games where full stat tracking is not needed

When an App Earns Its Place

• You score every game of a long season and want the totals kept for you
• Several coaches need to read the same book after the game
• You want batting average and OBP without doing the division by hand

Striveon is not a scorekeeping app. It does not read a scorecard, record at-bats, hits or RBI, or work out batting average and OBP. Set up a game in your Striveon calendar with its lineup, and it keeps the batting order, fielding positions, each pitcher's pitch count, and the final score. Alongside the games you get shared evaluation criteria, skill evaluations, progress charts built from the ratings, goals each player can see, and the drills and season plans that work on the same skills. That is the player development record a scorecard was never designed to hold.