Meaning & use
batting cage
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Meaning
nouncountablesportAmerican
A netted enclosure where baseball or softball players practice hitting balls thrown or fired by a machine or a pitcher.
Grammar: Plural is batting cages; used with in or at: practice in the batting cage.
Patterns
- practice in a batting cage
- hit balls in the batting cage
He spends Saturday mornings in the batting cage working on his swing.
The amusement park has a batting cage where kids can try softball.
The coach set up a portable batting cage behind the school.
Word forms
| plural | batting cages |
|---|
Common combinations
- hit in the batting cage
- She hit a hundred balls in the batting cage.
- indoor batting cage
- The town built an indoor batting cage for winter practice.
- batting cage session
- Our batting cage session starts at four.
- rent the batting cage
- We rented the batting cage for the team.
- pitching machine in the batting cage
- The pitching machine in the batting cage jammed again.
Synonyms and how they differ
- practice net
- A practice net is the general term and can also serve other sports, whereas a batting cage is for baseball and softball.
- batting tunnel
- Batting tunnel is the British and Australian term for a similar structure used in cricket and baseball.
- hitting facility
- Hitting facility is a more formal description of a larger training site, not just a single cage.
Word family
Commonly confused: batting cage or batting practice?
batting cage vs batting practice
Batting practice is the activity of hitting, and the batting cage is the place where it often happens.
Practice
To improve his swing before the season, Leo took a bucket of balls to the ___.
Choose one answer.
A batting cage is where hitters practice swinging. A bird cage and a shopping cart have nothing to do with baseball, and a locker room is for changing.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “batting cage”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.