Early in Carson Lund’s indie comedy “Eephus,” a grey-bearded, bitter amateur baseball player watches a group of kids playing soccer on a pristine field. Looking down, he is reminded of the degraded outfield in Soldiers Field, where his team, the River Dogs, has played community-organized games for years.

“Eephus” doesn’t follow a typical plot structure, but the premise follows the final match between two small-town baseball teams the day before a school will be built on top of their baseball field.

What ensues is a sentimental, riotous nine innings that last well into the night. The game is segmented by time of day, rather than innings, and after each segment, I felt I knew a bit more about each character.

There’s a large ensemble on display here, since there are two nine-person teams and a few side characters. Even though the film comes in at a tight 90 minutes, I had a grasp on every character’s identity by the end.

There isn’t necessarily a main character; instead, the film sways between the men’s conversations to create narrative propulsion. There aren’t scenes where characters describe their situation, their attitude, and why they play baseball. Any necessary information comes across between the lines or through brief, naturalistic conversations.

One character, Graham, is risk-averse, and it shines through in his third-base coaching. He consistently advises players on third not to run home after plays in which they had ample chance to score a run. Watching the players humorously rag on Graham throughout the film only to congratulate him once he faces his flaw at the end of the film was very satisfying.

This is what the film does extremely well, providing micro-character arcs for nearly everyone on the field. While the relationships between the men are what give the movie its engine, the central ideas are what mainly kept me engaged.

Halfway through the game, an experienced former college pitcher discusses the eephus pitch: a fake-out fastball that floats in the air for so long the batter either swings too early or too late. The player describing the pitch compares this to baseball, saying, “You spend the whole time looking for something to happen, then poof, it’s over.”

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Their conversation is the film’s centerpiece, two guys bonding over this pitch that is a metaphor for baseball. Throughout the movie, these players bicker, bond, and shout at each other, but baseball unites them all.

I found the film’s ideas about baseball, its place in history, and its ability to bring grumpy suburban men together touching but not overly sentimental. “Eephus” is a comedy, after all, so it conveys these emotional ideas through laugh-out-loud sports scenes.

Baseballs get lost in the woods, guys completely whiff pitches, and runners faceplant onto bases. While most of the comedy is deadpan or underplayed, the sprinkling of slapstick is incredibly effective.

A lot of the funniest moments come from side characters not involved in the game. A young onlooker gets on one of the red team players’ nerves, so the player gives him a couple of bucks to buy a pack of cigarettes. Toward the end, a man named Lee stumbles out of the woods and throws a perfect inning.

While the sentimental core of “Eephus” is going to keep me thinking about it, the comedy is what got me in the door, and it did not disappoint. In a world of “Snow White” remakes and the terrible-looking “A Minecraft Movie,” the unique, humanistic charm of “Eephus” stands out, making it the best film I’ve seen this year so far.