The NFHS sets rules for all high school baseball games, including a pitching mound that is 10 inches high and 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate. The batter's box must be four feet by six feet, and the strike zone ranges from halfway between a hitter's shoulders and waist down to his knees. The bases and home plate must all be 90 feet apart. (Reference 1)
High school games, unlike professional baseball, use aluminum rather than wood bats. Bat handles can consist of a graphite-fiber composite, but the barrels must be pure aluminum. (Reference 2) Bats must have a safety grip of between 10 inches and 18 inches. If a fielder uses an illegal glove, such as a glove in which the player has applied a sticky substance, the hitting team gets to take two or three bases depending on whether the player used the glove to field a batted ball. (Reference 1)
Georgia high school teams may play no more than 26 games before the state playoffs. Teams can participate in no more than one preseason scrimmage. (Reference 3)
Georgia high school pitchers cannot exceed 10 innings of work in a day, nor 14 innings in a four-day period. A single pitch in any inning counts as an inning pitched. In the case of a suspended game that is technically a "no-contest," the innings still count toward a pitcher's limit. Pitchers who exceed their limit become ineligible, and teams that use an ineligible player must forfeit any games in which that player appears. (Reference 3)
Georgia teams can send in courtesy base runners for the pitcher and catcher and, unlike in professional baseball, allow the pitcher or catcher to remain in the game. The courtesy runner cannot have played in the game in any other capacity before entering. (Reference 3)
If a team trails by 10 or more runs and has gotten to bat in five innings, the umpires will end the game. (Reference 3)
The umpires can halt a game for a cumulative total of two hours before officially suspending it. If a suspended game is the first half of a doubleheader, the umpires must officially postpone the second game. (Reference 3)
If a game ends prematurely--because of weather issues, for example--and the teams have not completed 4 1/2 or five innings, the game becomes a "no-contest" and will start over from the first inning if the teams replay it. If a game ends prematurely and the teams have completed 4 1/2 or five innings with one team in the lead, the contest is an officially completed game. If the teams have completed the requisite innings with a tie score, the teams will resume the game from the interruption point. (Reference 3)
Georgia decides state baseball champions in five enrollment classifications. Each class has eight regions. (Reference 4) A region sends four teams, based on win-loss record within the region, to the state tournament for a total of 32 teams in each class. Each round of the state tournament is a best-of-three series, with the higher-seeded team hosting all three games. (Reference 3)