How do I score a hit versus an error?

Question

Accepted Answer

Official Baseball Rules 9.05 (2025 edition, used for the 2026 Baseball Canada season). Credit a base hit when the batter reaches first base (or any later base) safely on:

a fair ball that settles on the ground, touches a fence before a fielder touches it, or clears a fence;
a fair ball hit so hard, or so slowly, that a fielder attempting a play has no opportunity to make it;
a fair ball that takes an unnatural bounce so a fielder cannot handle it with ordinary effort, or that touches the pitcher's plate or a base before a fielder touches it and bounces so it cannot be handled with ordinary effort;
a fair ball not touched by a fielder that is in fair territory when it reaches the outfield, unless in the scorer's judgment it could have been handled with ordinary effort;
a fair ball not touched by a fielder that touches a runner or an umpire (but no hit if a runner is called out on an Infield Fly);
a play where a fielder unsuccessfully tries to put out a preceding runner and, in the scorer's judgment, the batter-runner would not have been put out at first by ordinary effort.

Benefit of the doubt: in applying these rules the scorer always gives the batter the benefit of the doubt, and a safe course is to score a hit when exceptionally good fielding of a ball fails to result in a putout. Errors are covered separately in Rule 9.12.