Dropped Third Strike Rule

Dropped

Although I am amuzed at some of the entries I read on here, it points out the overall problem in youth sports, all the way through the high school level; Not enough "proper" training for umpires. Several members of the Collegiate staffs that I work with, have offered to set up and conduct training sessions for the officials that are umpiring at the high school level. At every stage, it has been rejected. The most common response is, "the local assignors have the responsibilty of training their officials". Putting umpires, especially ones that have little-to-no, actual on-field experience, in a room to read a couple of rules out of a book, each week, is not training. We would welcome the opportunity to help train these officials, but the real reason that we get turned down, is that these people believe, that if we do this, we will steal their officials to cover the college games. This is not necessarily true. Yes, we are always on the look-out for good officials, but only a small percentage of high school umpires have the ability to take time off from work to travel, to meet the collegiate demands. Training, benefits EVERYONE, and lack of it hurts the most important people in this, YOUR DAUGHTERS! Good luck with this, I hope some people realize that this is more the norm, than the exception.

 

This is not directed at you specifically but after watching a season of NCAA softball from behind the backstop, I am afraid the collegiate level is not much better than the high school level at least not at D3.

 

D3 Umpires

Unfortunately, you are correct. A lot of the D3 schools are forced to use High School or summer league umpires, due to the fact that they cannot afford to have the higher level officials at their games. In some cases, you will have the upper level officials on the games, due to the fact, they might be off from the D1 level and live somewhere close and are willing to do the games. Anyone who knows me, and you can ask "Windmillr" about me, I am a stickler for proper training, he and his daughter come in to pitch to my officials during our training camps. I conduct very strenuous, multi-day camps, for collegiate officials. I have also offered these sevices to several different areas in North and South Carolina. We all need to strive to provide our daughters with the best opportunity to succeed, and a large part of it, is the officials that are doing their games.

 

Many umpires have used the term "uncaught third strike" and "dropped third stike" to apply to the different actual situations that are covered by the same dang rule.

If the ball hits the ground, run.

 

Be careful...

Saw this happen yesterday...

Catcher drops third strike. Entire bench starts screaming RUN! Batter takes off. Only problem is there is a runner on first and no outs. Runner on first gets caught up in the excitement and starts to run to second. Coaches scream NO, GO BACK! Catcher throws ball to first. First basewoman obviously knows that the girl that left first is fair game and tags her out. Went from 0 outs with runner on first to 2 outs with no runners on. Bummer...

 

Dropped 3rd Strike with a twist

2 outs, runner on 3rd base, 2-2 count on the batter. On the pitch, the runner on 3rd base takes off to steal home. Batter swings and misses the pitch. Catcher drops the ball, picks it up, and attempts to tag the runner stealing home-catcher misses the tag. Catcher then throws to 1st base in time to get the batter out running to first. Does the run score?

Same game- Runner on 1st base takes off on the pitch to steal 2nd base. The pitcher throws a wild pitch. How do you score the runner advancing to 2nd base? What if the runner makes it all the way to 3rd base on the play, with no throw from the catcher?

 

NO...

 

1. Force play, no score.
2. No SB in my mind going to 2nd, but I wonder about taking 3rd scoring.
Fish

 

Correct. There was lots of discussion amongst the coaches before the correct ruling came to the field.

 

The official ruling was: SB, since the runner broke on the pitch, not on the wild pitch.

If the runner gets to 3rd base on the play, it is scored as an SB to 2nd base, then a WP to 3rd base.

From ATEC:

This is something that I just recently learned after wrongfully not awarding SB's for a couple of years. Ooops. Sorry girls. There wasn't that many, maybe a handful at the most.