When you look at a high school baseball field in the near future, you’ll see something slightly different on the base paths.

Starting in 2027, all fields throughout the country will have a “double first base” to minimize the risk of collisions between fielders and baserunners. The rule change was approved by the NFHS Board of Directors during their annual meeting in early June.

The double base will be twice as big as an ordinary base. Half of it will be white and in fair territory while the other, a contrasting solid color, will be in foul territory. It will be split down the middle by the foul line.

“Adding the double first base is symbolic to the evolution of the sport. It will immediately address running lane violations, and it will further protect the players from the violent collisions that have occurred at first base,” Elliot Hopkins, NFHS director of sports and liaison to the Baseball Rules Committee, said in a statement. “By reducing collisions and enhancing safety, it preserves both the integrity of competition and the well-being of those who play.”

After putting the ball in play, baserunners must run to the colored part of the base unless a fielder is drawn into foul territory to field a dropped third strike. In that case, the runner must run towards the white portion of the base.

If the runner reaches first safely, they must always return to the white side, whether it be on a pickoff attempt, leading off the bag or tagging up on a fly ball. If the runner is walked or registers a hit with no chance of a play being made at first, they may use the white part of the base.

Interference will be called on runners who use the white part of the base and collide with a fielder. Likewise, interference will be called on a fielder who uses the colored part of the base when making a play and collides with the runner.

“It’s just trying to make the game cleaner, safer,” Tupelo coach Scott Gann said. “A lot of those issues that happen around first base with a runner, and colliding with the first baseman, it just kind of cleans that up. Anything to make the game a little safer, I’m all for.”

“I know a lot of baseball guys are purists and all those things,” he added. “But I don’t see it as a negative.”

One of the area’s top coaches, Eric Reynolds, likes the rule change, but feels that, with all such things, there will be time needed to adjust.

“There’s probably going to be times where the baserunner’s going to go back to the bag and stand on the bag and be right there, and think he’s on the base that he’s supposed to be on,” he said. “And he might be on the contrast bag versus the real first base.”

Reynolds, the Daily Journal’s 2025 Coach of the Year, doesn’t see that adjustment period lasting long before it simply becomes a natural part of the game.

“They’ve had changes of rules of how the pitchers stand on the rubber for years, changing those back and forth,” he said. “The first first few weeks, I’ll be getting used to it, but after the first few weeks, we’ll have adapted to that new base, and it’ll be baseball as normal.”

Meanwhile in Mooreville, Derek Thompson has his questions, not about how it affects the players and coaches, but how it affects the umpires when they make calls at first.

Thompson is curious to see how well the umpires are able to determine which side of the bag the runners step on when they reach first base.

“That’s going to be the biggest adjustment, is for the umpires because it’s going to be something else that they’ve got to look for, that they’ve got to watch,” he said. “And at the end of the day, it’s going to be, you know, that’s what they saw or didn’t see.

“We don’t have the option of going back and having replays, so if the umpire says he touches the white bag and he’s out, that’s going to cause some issues. That’s going to cause some problems.”