Questions coaches ask
The things worth knowing before you try it. Anything else, just ask. You will be writing to the person who built it.
The basics
What is Even Innings?
Lineup and practice-plan software for youth baseball and softball coaches. You pick your pitchers; it builds a fair, competitive lineup that respects your league’s pitching rules and prints on one page you can carry to the field.
How does it work?
Add your roster and tap which positions each player can handle. Pick your pitchers for the day. Press build. Most coaches are set up in about ten minutes and building lineups in about one.
Who is it for?
Head coaches and managers of players ages 7 through adult, baseball and softball. Built by a Little League Majors and Minors coach for the Friday night before the game. Rec, All-Stars, tournament and travel teams alike. Younger divisions get even innings and mandatory play cleared without counting; older and competitive teams get the strongest defense available, the batting order left to the coach, and a pitching-eligibility check for any date — which arms are rested for Saturday, worked out on Wednesday.
Why use it?
Building a genuinely fair lineup by hand takes real time. Two coaches independently put it at 30 to 60 minutes a game on a legal pad, and that is with experience. Even Innings does it in about a minute and spreads playing time across the season rather than one game.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It opens in your browser on a phone, tablet or laptop. Nothing to download, nothing to update, no app store.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes, and it prints from a phone. Setting up your roster the first time is easier on a bigger screen because there is a lot of typing, but everything after that works comfortably with a thumb in a dugout.
Can I import my roster from GameChanger?
Not directly, but there is a shortcut if your team has already played games. On a computer, sign in at web.gc.com, pick your team, open Stats and press Export Stats — you get a CSV. Open it, copy the column of player names, and paste the whole column into Even Innings at 1. Roster → Bulk Add Players. Two things to know: you have to be listed as Staff on the team, or the button will not be there; and it is a stats export, so a brand-new team that has not played yet will not have much in it. If that is a hassle, just type them. Bulk Add takes the whole roster at once, one name per line — fourteen names is about two minutes, and it is the only time you do it.
Where everything lives
Where is my data?
On your device, in your own browser. Nowhere else. Rosters, ages and pitch counts are never uploaded, because there is no server to upload them to and no account to attach them to.
Is my players’ information safe?
There is no database of children’s names to breach, because there is no database. Nothing about your team ever leaves the device you are working on.
Do you sell my data, or show ads?
No, and no. Your roster never reaches me, so there is nothing to sell. There is no advertising anywhere in the app or on the sheet you print.
What if you stop working on Even Innings?
You keep everything, and you keep using it. There is no server to switch off: the app is a single page your browser already has, and your rosters, ages and pitch counts sit on your own device, not in an account I control. A backup you export is a plain file that opens without me.
What happens if I get a new device?
Export a backup from the old device and import it on the new one. One button each way, and it moves everything: teams, rosters, saved games and pitch counts. The same trick moves your season between a laptop and a phone.
Should I be backing up?
Yes, and it takes one tap. Browsers can clear stored data, particularly iPhones, which clear a site’s data after about a week of not opening it. Back up when you set up your roster and you are covered. The app reminds you.
On an iPhone, should I add it to my home screen?
Yes. Open the link in Safari, tap share, then Add to Home Screen. Safari clears a website’s stored data after about seven days without a visit, and your season lives in that storage — so a quiet stretch between games is when a tab can come back empty. Opened from the home screen it counts as its own app, and that timer does not apply. It also opens full-screen and loads faster. Keep taking backups anyway. On Android and laptops this is optional.
Rules and rulebooks
Which leagues and rulebooks does it know?
Little League, Cal Ripken, Babe Ruth, PONY, USA Softball, USSSA and Perfect Game. Baseball and softball, regular season and All-Stars. Every limit is read from the governing body’s own current rulebook and cited by regulation on the sheet you print — and where a body sets no pitching limit at all, which is the norm in softball, Even Innings asks what your league requires and enforces that instead.
What if my league is not listed?
You are still covered. Choose Custom and enter your league’s own limits: innings or pitches per game, per day and per week, and the rest a pitcher owes after a long outing. Even Innings enforces yours exactly the way it enforces anyone else’s.
How do I know the pitching limits are right?
Because a human read the rulebook and the printed sheet tells you which one. The foot of your game sheet cites the regulation and the date it was checked, so you can hold the paper next to your own book. That check is repeated every year before the season starts.
Does Even Innings keep me compliant?
It is a planning aid, not a compliance system. It helps you build a lineup that fits your league’s published limits, and it shows its work. It cannot know what actually happened in a game and it is not a substitute for your league’s official record or your own judgment. Always confirm against your own rulebook before it matters.
What about All-Stars and tournaments?
Handled, and the rules genuinely change — not the same way in every organization. Tell it you are in All-Stars or tournament play and it applies that book's tournament rules. Little League All-Stars requires a continuous batting order and drops the defensive playing-time minimum. USSSA and Perfect Game have you declare a line-up before the first pitch instead. Babe Ruth lets you add a tenth batter as an Extra Player in District, State and Regional play. Pitching windows change too, and they change differently in each book.
Does it track pitch counts?
Yes. Log what each pitcher threw and Even Innings carries the rest days forward, warns you when an arm is not eligible, and prints who is available today and how much they have left.
What if the rules change next year?
They do, most years, and a rules tool is only as good as its most recent reading. Every rule set is re-read against the newest published book annually, before the season, and an updated build ships before coaches are assigned.
Using it week to week
What happens when a player does not show up?
Mark them out and rebuild. Every inning re-solves around the missing player with your pitching limits still intact, and you get a new sheet in about a minute.
Can I run more than one team?
Yes, as many as you like, at the same time. Each team keeps its own roster, its own saved games and its own rulebook, so a Little League team and a travel team never borrow each other’s limits.
Can I coach different age groups or leagues at once?
Yes. Every team carries its own organization, division and season type. Switch between them from the top of the screen and nothing crosses over.
How many players can it handle?
Comfortably more than a youth roster needs. The printed sheet still fits one page up to 22 batters, and it tells you if you go past that.
Can I hand the printed sheet to the umpire?
Yes, that is exactly what it is built for. It reads like a standard lineup card: batting order, jersey number, player, starting position by number, home or visitor, and a signature line. If your league still uses a paper triplicate card, the columns run in the same order.
What happens when the season ends?
Archive the team. Everything stays, so you can still answer a question about last spring, and your current teams stay uncluttered.
Can my assistant coach use it?
Yes. Print the sheet and hand it over. The practice plan in particular is designed to be run by someone else, with stations, timings and bullpen assignments already laid out.
Does it help with playing-time complaints?
That is one of the reasons it exists. Even Innings spreads position and bench time across the season, not just one game, and the Season Fairness page shows each player’s innings by position, and what share of their field time each one held. You get to answer with a record instead of a memory.
Can it plan practices too?
Yes. Tell it how long you have and what you want to work on, and it produces a timed practice plan with warm-up, stations, water breaks and team situations, on one page you can hand to an assistant.
The people part
What does it cost?
Free through the beta this fall. Paid league licensing opens for the 2027 spring season, and one purchase covers every coach in the league.
Who built this?
Jeff Schwartz, a Little League coach in Los Angeles and an educator of nearly twenty years. It started as a way to stop losing Friday nights to a legal pad.
How do I get help?
Email jeff@eveninnings.com, or use the “tell me if something breaks” link inside the app, which fills in your version automatically. You are writing to the person who built it.
Is Even Innings finished?
No, and that is deliberate. It is in the hands of real coaches this fall precisely so the next round of changes comes from the field rather than from guesswork.