Pesapallo is a fast-moving ball sport that is quite often referred to as the national sport of Finland.
It is a combination of traditional ball-batting team games and American baseball.

One team tries to score by hitting the ball and running through the bases, the other team tries to defend by catching the ball and putting the runners out.
The key to the game and the most important difference between pesapallo and baseball is the vertical pitching.

The team

A team consists of at most two managers and at most 12 players, 9 of whom can be active during one defensive half.
During one offensive half, 9 players and additional batters (jokers) can be active.
A team can use three different jokers at bat during each offensive half.
The use of a joker does not cause any other player in the batting order to lose his turn at bat.

Duration and score of a game

The duration of an official game for men, women are 4+4+1 innings.
In all games, the period ends immediately when the team with the lower score has no more offensive half-innings available.

Rules and Regulations of the Game

A modern competition game is played in two periods of four innings each.
A period is won by the team which scores more runs in its offensive half-innings.

If each of the teams wins one period, the game will be decided by a super inning (extra period), which consists of one inning and, if necessary to break the tie, of a special scoring contest.

During an inning both teams take turns playing offense (batting) and defense (fielding).

The defensive team has nine players on the field.

The offensive team can use three jokers (designated hitters) during one half-inning in addition to the nine players in the regular batting order.
The batter and the pitcher face each other in the home base, on opposite sides of the circular plate.
The pitch is delivered by throwing the ball directly upwards above the plate, to a height of at least 1 meter over the head of the pitcher.
The batter has three strikes available on his turn at bat.

A fair hit does not force him to advance; he can use all three strikes at bat before he becomes a runner.
A pitch counts as a strike, if the batter takes a swing at the ball or if the umpire rules the pitch legal.
A hit is foul, if the ball first touches the field outside of the boundaries.
The batter or the runners cannot advance on a foul hit.
If the fielders get control of the ball before it touches the field, the hit is a catch, and all runners who tried to advance on that play are caught.
Players who have been caught are removed from the field, but they do not count as outs.

The Equipment

The field

The plate is a hard circular plate with a thickness between 3 and 5 cm and a diameter of 60 cm.
The top surface of the plate shall be evenly horizontal and rose between 3 and 5 cm above the field surface.
The plate shall be firmly fixed to the ground.
The immediate field shall be surrounded on all sides with an open area of at least 10 meters width.
The boundary lines shall be drawn with slaked lime, chalk or other clearly visible (white) material. The width of the boundary line is 10 cm.

The ball

All official balls have a circumference between 215 and 225 mm.
The weight of a men''s ball is between 155 and 165 g.
The weight of a women''s ball is between 130 and 140 g.
The weight of a children''s ball is between 90 and 100 g.

The bat

The bat is a round, tapered cylinder.
These were fairly brittle and did not last very long when used to hit such a heavy ball.
The weight of the bat is considered to be its most important property.
A typical bat used in Superpesis-league weighs between 580 and 620 grams.

The glove

The glove is used to ease catching the ball when playing a defensive inning

The helmet

Each player is required to wear a helmet when playing in an offensive inning.

Officials of a match

Umpire-in-chief
Two Assistant umpires.

Major Tournaments

World Cup
Supersesis.
Governing Bodies
Pesäpalloliitto