Runner on third, 1 out. Batter drops down a bunt, defense choses not to throw to first for the out, batter reaches safely. Hit, fielder's choice, defensive indifference, ....? Just curious as our parents have way different opinions on how it should be scored. Thanks.
Might have checked the runner, but the "no throw" was to keep the girl on third. Probably would have gotten the runner at first without much problem.
Does a fielder's choice have to include an attempt to get an out?
That's not really a blanket statement. In the case of a player looking a runner back(not making a play on runner) then trying to get the batter and the batter is safe then it's a hit even though if bases were empty they would have been out. It makes up the FC's that occur when a runner makes a real bad read and is forced out on what would have been a hit had there been no one on base.i used to think so, but i've also read that it is called a FC if, in the scorers judgement, an out would have been recorded with ordinary effort if no runners had been on base......in this instance, it sounds like it is likely that with ordinary effort the out would have been recorded had no runner been on 3rd.......
Sounds like you need better scorekeepers.In high school we take the simple approach... if an out was not made, credit the batter with a hit. If an out was made, score it an FC on the batter. The Fielder's Choice simply transfers the out from the batter to another runner. There is no need to complicate things by relying on a scorekeeper to decide if the batter-runner would have been safe if a throw had been made to 1B. Very few high school softball scorekeepers have actually played the game themselves and are qualified to make subjective shoulda-coulda-woulda judgements about the game! We also make collective decisions as a coaching staff about errors vs. hits and do not leave it up to the scorekeeper.