Sobrato’s baseball team fashioned a superb 2025 season, with a 20-7 overall record and a 14-4 league record. In the Blossom Valley Athletic League, Santa Teresa Division, the Bulldogs finished in third place. They advanced into the Central Coast Section Division VI playoffs and smashed More 11-1, then lost a semifinal donnybrook 12-8 to Stevenson, the eventual champ.
Across town, Live Oak battled injuries in a competitive campaign, finishing 10-8 for fifth place in the BVAL Santa Teresa Division standings, just a few close losses away from the playoffs.
Both teams return a fair number of underclassmen as they look to the spring of 2026. Sobrato is additionally excited as their JV team excelled this past season, compiling a 21-3 record.
And when the Bulldogs and the Acorns take the field next spring, they will find the diamond looks a little different. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) announced that the “double first base” will be mandatory for the spring 2026 baseball season.
The new rule, used successfully in college baseball this past season, entails two side-by-side first bases. One is in fair ground for the defense and a different-colored base is in foul ground for the batter, when running to first. The setup helps avoid collisions at first base.
The extra base only comes into play during plays at first after a batted ball. Once a runner is on first base, everything is the same as before for that runner and anyone on defense. That is, they both use the standard white base in fair territory.
If a player hits a double, triple or homer, he may use either base when rounding first.
A bouncing batted ball over the colored base is in foul territory and thus foul.
Coaches have been positive about this. They feel players will adjust quickly and it will also help the umpires.
“Adding the double first base is symbolic to the evolution of the sport,” Elliot Hopkins, NFHS director of sports and liaison to the Baseball Rules Committee, said in a news release. “It will immediately address running lane violations, and it will further protect the players from the violent collisions that have occurred at first base.
“By reducing collisions and enhancing safety, it preserves both the integrity of competition and the well-being of those who play.”
The new season is tentatively scheduled to begin in late February 2026.
This rule has not yet been implemented in softball, but it seems that that sport might follow soon.
