Funny (to me) thing this weekend. My DD broke her foot so was at the tournament cheering, but I didn't go.
While watching on Game Changer, the feed delayed so I switched and followed the game scored by the other team. Girl on our team hits the ball, and it's scored an E5.
When I go back to the feed from my team's scorer, I see it was ruled a hit.
Kind of made me wonder what really happened.
A) It was totally an error but our scorer was being nice
B) It was totally a hit but the scorer of the other team's daughter wants to play third so he called it an E6
C) One of the scorers wasn't paying attention and just guessed
D) None of the above
My guess is that the scorekeeper for the other team had a relationship with the pitcher. An error doesn't count against the pitcher's stats and keeps her ERA down. Meanwhile,. your scorekeeper wants to reward your hitters with hits whenever they can. So on a close call, they give the error which helps the pitcher and your guys calls it. hit, m which rewards the batter.
That was one of the that prompted the thread from me -- I'm a pitcher's father, and when I scored Rec her stats would get killed because I wouldn't call many things errors. No big deal. But when she started comp and there was internal competition between pitchers, the scorer (the mother of the other pitcher) was very forgiving of our defense when my daughter pitcher and not so forgiving when her daughter pitched. So her daughter's stats looked a lot better than my daughter's. And while those things don't matter, they kinda do sometimes.
Again, it's all stupid, but I want to be fair to everyone. I appreciate the info everyone has given me and the links to the rule books. I had no idea, for example, that if an outfielder falls down going after a fly it's not an error, or if a pitcher misses a comeback. But I didn't know that if a first baseman lifts their foot to make a catch, that could be an error. Just lots of nuance. Mostly it's all judgement -- if a player at this level should -- not could -- have made the play, you can feel all right calling it an error. if not, then don't.
Thanks again for all the insight. I appreciate it.