What Is At-Bat in Softball?

An at-bat is the denominator of batting average and slugging percentage. It counts plate appearances that resolved with a hit or an out, and deliberately excludes outcomes the batter arguably didn't control or shouldn't be penalised for.

Walks, hit-by-pitches, sacrifice flies and sacrifice bunts are all plate appearances but not at-bats. A player who walks four times in a game has four plate appearances and zero at-bats, and their batting average is untouched.

Reaching base on an error does count as an at-bat, and is recorded as an out for batting-average purposes — one of the few places where the official scorer's judgement directly changes a player's stat line.