What is your ruling on this one?

Was at a tournament and saw this happen.

Defensive team on the field with two outs. Runner on first. Batter swings and misses third strike. Catcher catches the ball, then drops it. Umpire signals strike three and calls out. Runner on first steps off a few steps and then turns and goes in the dugout. Batter jogs down first baseline and turns to go to dugout also.

Defensive team on the field comes into the dugout and is inside.
First base coach grabs batter and tells her to stand on first. Then goes into his dugout and grabs girl that had left the field and tells her to go back to second. Then yells out that the runner at first was safe because the catcher did not throw down to first.

Umpires look totally confused.

First base coach tells his girls to run and before the defensive team could get back out of the dugout the runners had rounded the bases.

Coaches could not believe what had happened and argues that regardless, runners had already entered the dugout and the coaches were the ones that put them back on the field.

Umpires are still confused then homeplate ump tells everyone it was his fault because he made an incorrect hand motion with the strike call.
Batting team now has two runs and umps tell the defensive team they will have to return to the field and the two runs stand.

Are the runners out and can the coaches go into the dugout and get a player back out and have them return to the base? And can they just continue to run when it is obviously a deadball situation?

OK, hope all of this makes sense, but I want to hear what some of you think the call on this is.

 

batter is out 1st base was occupied, if there was one out runner on first is out for going into the dug out.......

 

This one is easy......

.....NEVER can a base coach assist a runner in any way other than vocal. Believe me TBR, I know first hand. 12u NC Dom. V. Cobras, Oddest ending of any TB game I've ever seen, NSA state championship, great game, great players, great parents, dumb coach at 3rd............................now how did you guess it was me? Yep, the ump said that I touched the runner going home to score to tie the game. Long story, but its a cool one to hear or read about, I'll do that in another thread. Hey....check this out...fastpitch is a special part of our lives and it lends to all of us examples and folks who are new friends.....the pitcher in that NSA game and my DD are now set up to be roommates at THE university....NCSU!

 

What type of tournament? ASA, Nsa?

 

Inning is over

With two outs and a dropped third strike, the batter can run to first even if it is occupied but the other runners have to advance as well. This can only happen with two outs. We found this out the hard way at a TB tourny. Bottom of inning, two outs, time expired, game tied, bases loaded. Our pitcher strikes out the batter but the catcher drops the ball. As most girls are taught, the batter who struck out takes off for first but the other runners took off too. Our catcher panics and makes an error throwing the ball to first, run scores. After much confusion and debate, the ump tells us that with two outs, the runners can advance on a dropped thrid strike. Run scores, game over. Turns out since the bases were loaded, all our catcher had to do was step on home since it was a force. DOH!

Anyway, for this situation. As soon as the runner enters the dugout, they are out of play and cannot come back onto the field. Also agree with marlin that if a base coach touches a runner while the ball is live, the runner is automatically out. Had that happen to us in another TB tourny but ours was very blatent! Our third base coach grabbed the girl, spun her around, and told her to run home. To this day we have no idea what he was thinking.

Sounds like blue made a few mistakes here...

 

1) Yes, with 2 out, the batter can attempt for first.

2) Yes, as soon as a offensive player enters "the team area," (i.e. the dugout) they are done.

3) The umpire did create an issue by improperly calling the batter out, and may feel the need to correct his mistake. However, in this case the runner should still have run, etc. Trying to fix this under "Rule 10" would not, IMHO, include allowing the travesty that occurred to stand.

4) A coach "Touching" the runner is one thing. Dragging and/or pushing is another. The former isn't really a problem. The latter will cause the dragging/pushed player to be called out.

I would have to agree with, inning over, batter out for entering the dugout.

We had a big controversial 2-out dropped third stike in a Varsity High School game here about a month ago. However, the runners took off without a lot of prompting (or assitance) and not coming close to going to the dugout. The defensive team left the field at their own peril as a run scored.

 

Outstanding!!! You get the brownie points

 

Same thoughts

Comments go along with exactly what I thought.
I couldn't believe what I was watching as it unfolded.

The tournament was an AAU. We have played a few and I have seen so much in the way of things out of the ordinary when we have played them.
Has anyone else got any out of the ordinary or questionable things they have experienced? I would love to hear them.
That way if they come up when we play I may have an idea of how others have handled the situations.

 

OUT !!!

First of all coach can't aid player by touching her, and secondly, once offensive player crosses plane into dugout she is out, and can't go to the base....she's OUT !!!


Guru