Earlier this year, I discovered something that I didn't know about scoring - the fact that if a batted ball hits a baserunner, the batter is credited with a hit if the scorekeeper feels that the ball would've gone for a hit if not for the runner.
Situation from Sunday - Runner on first. Ground ball that forces the second baseman to go to her right. She fields it, but the attempt forces her to fall over, and her throw (from a seated position) is late to first. That's a hit - except that the umpire rules that the baserunner skipped or jumped over the groundball, which he said is an automatic out in USSSA. What would you rule? For one thing, I've never heard of this rule. He suggested that it was a USSSA-specific rule. For the scorekeeper, I guess it's a judgment as to whether the fielder truly was hampered by the jump because under the rules, it doesn't matter whether she was hampered. The act of jumping over the grounder is what made it an automatic out, regardless of whether the fielder was bothered by it.
Situation from Sunday - Runner on first. Ground ball that forces the second baseman to go to her right. She fields it, but the attempt forces her to fall over, and her throw (from a seated position) is late to first. That's a hit - except that the umpire rules that the baserunner skipped or jumped over the groundball, which he said is an automatic out in USSSA. What would you rule? For one thing, I've never heard of this rule. He suggested that it was a USSSA-specific rule. For the scorekeeper, I guess it's a judgment as to whether the fielder truly was hampered by the jump because under the rules, it doesn't matter whether she was hampered. The act of jumping over the grounder is what made it an automatic out, regardless of whether the fielder was bothered by it.