The Effect of Different Lineup Orders on Average Runs Scored Per Softball Game

Abstract

Softball, a sport often referred to as the “female variant” of baseball, is gradually gaining recognition and increasing participation. A key part of offensive play is determining a lineup order that would increase the chances of scoring runs. There are gaps in establishing an ideal batting order due to the controversies between coaches’ opinions and preferences. There is a lack of research with supporting evidence determining the most effective lineup. As this is an understudied field, investigating how different softball batting orders affect the average number of runs scored per game would help determine whether a specific lineup benefits a team’s offensive performance. We hypothesized that creating an order starting with a player possessing a high on-base percentage, followed by three stronger power hitters, would help teams reach the most runs possible. This experiment was conducted by programming a softball game simulator using Java on jGRASP. Thirty trials were conducted, one game representing one trial, for three different lineup types. At the end of each 30-trial experiment, the final mean runs scored were calculated to compare the effectiveness of each lineup type. The batting order with the greatest average runs scored was found to be the most ideal order. Future studies could further explore other aspects of the softball game that support the chances of winning.