Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. The batting team attempts to score runs by hitting a ball (that is thrown by the opposing team’s pitcher) with a bat swung by the batter, and then running counter-clockwise around a series of four bases: first, second, third, and home plate. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases and returns to home plate.