look back rule

WP ball 4, batter rounds first and is headed back to first when the ball is thrown to the pitcher in the circle. After the pitcher receives the ball the runner touches first and then takes off for second.

What is the consensus? Should the runner be called out or should the play be allowed to unfold?

 

Once the ball is under control in the circle and no play is attempted on the runner and the runner has returned and is ON the base, she would be out for leaving the base.

 

Agreed. The runner may have reversed direction once before touching first, but as soon as she touched the bag, she was committed to it. Leaving it put her out.

 

That was my thought on this as well. An umpire said he called a runner out for this and the coach said that this is a play he has been teaching his runners.

I told the umpire I agreed with his call and that the rule says if the runner is stopped on a base when the ball is in the circle that the runner may not leave that base. A change in direction is a stop, it might not be a discernible stop, but discernible is not in the wording of the rule.

If the runner was going to second, touched it, and without stopping on second advanced to third I would say that would definetly be legal.

Just curiious as to what everyones thoughts were on this as there is no case play for this.

 

Lets put a little twist on this and say the batter-runner missed first and she was returning to correct her base running error and immediately advanced to second.

Does that change the call from an automatic out, to a play on situation?

 

To me it would be the same. The pitcher has the ball in the circle and the batter is returning to first, the runner must stay at first. While 8-7(F.P.) Article 4.a is what directly applies here (but doesn't quite cover it because the BR is already headed back to 1B before F1 gets the ball), 4.d gives the thought process behind the rules:

BR is not heading towards second base, so she's committed to first.

Let me add some fire to this: Let's say the runner decides to go straight to 2B as the pitcher gets the ball. She stops on second and then a base coach makes a covert sign to her that she missed 1B. What should she do?

 

Stay at second and hope the umpire did not see it. Returning to first, by rule, should be called out.

 

I think that since she reached 2nd and the ball is in control in the circle that play has stopped and she will have to take her chances. It is too late at that point to try to fix a mistake.

 

I had a runner in a scrimmage a last season steal second, and the ball got by the catcher. While she was on second the ball was thrown back to the pitcher in the circle. For some reason she thought it was a foul ball, the fielders and base coach did not say a word to her, she just left second and started back to first. I immediately called time and called her out. A little argument from the coach, but after I explained that she did this without the fielder saying anything he understood.

 

I was trying to imply with this twist that the runner in the OP is in violation of the spirit of the rule, and the runner in the twist is technically in violation of the rule, but is not in violation of the spirit of the rule.

The look back rule was put into place to prevent the cat and mouse games that were being played by runners and pitchers.

The rule that pertains to these plays is NFHS 8.7.3 which states that once a runner stops on a base for any reason she will be declared out if she leaves that base.

The stop on a base for any reason clause makes these plays illegal, if a reversal of direction is to be considered a stop, which physics tells us that an object that reverses directions did in fact make a stop.