lead-off

Noun

(uncountable)

(baseball) The first batter in the batting order.
Jones has been the team's lead off hitter for three years.
(baseball) The first batter of an inning.
The lead off hitter for the sixth inning is Jones.

Verb

(third-person singular simple present leads off, present participle leading off, simple past and past participle led off)

(baseball) To be the first batter of an inning.
Jones led off the inning with a home run.
Jones is leading off an inning for the third time in the game.

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.