Saw this last night...learning all the time

Stanford vs Arizona in the super regional. Stanford has runners on 1st and 2nd with 0 outs. The batter puts a ball in play towards the 1st baseman...it was the equivalent of a good bunt, but it could have been a slap or a swinging bunt. 1st baseman fields it way up the line (half way to the plate) and the runner has not gotten that far yet. The runner stops to avoid the tag and the runners advance to 2nd and 3rd. The only problem is the batter not only stopped, she backed up a couple of steps. Because she backed up I guess it became a dead ball because she was out and the runners had to go back to 1st and 2nd. If she would have just stopped and not backed up the runners could have advanced. I did not know that backing up would cause a dead ball situation...I knew the runner would be out though.

 

Yes most people don't know this rule but you cannot backup between 1st and home. If you do you are out, dead ball and runners have to go back to where they were.

 

Any Base

I thought that you could not back up between any base if you are avoiding a force play. This happened to us at USFA Nationals last year and it was called between 2nd and 3rd as a runner backed up to avoid being tagged. There was a force at 3B at the time...

 

If I'm not mistaken you can get in a run down or pickle between any base except for first and home. The result is a dead ball and base runners go back to the base they were on when the infraction happened.

 

Hey

Hey be easy on yourself we are always learning the game !!

Guru

 

Not sure...

The commentators last night said you can back up between any bags other than home and 1st but they did not clarify if that included all force plays. I know I have seen girls backup between 1st and 2nd and not had anything called.

 

You can't back up between home and 1st. The other bases you can any direction you want, regardless of a force play or not.

In Colorado, I saw California team do this- with runners on 2nd and 3rd, they had the runner on 2nd take her lead towards 1st and try to draw a throw from the catcher.

It worked. The catcher was so confused, she threw the ball to 2nd and the runner was in a run down allowing the runner from 3rd to score.

I've looked in the ASA rule book and asked many umpires about this and none of them say there is a rule saying which way have to go off a base.

 

Something I just learned. Good post Chachacha.