10u rec softball last night, I m AC of away team, bottom of the 4th, away team up by 2 (5-3), Runner on 3B, 2 outs.
batter hits ball, bounces in box or on plate, then into fair territory, but barely. F2 picks up ball, tags out runner attempting to come home, PU (only umpire) calls girl out. F1 and F2 immediately start to hustle towards dugout, I call out for rest of defense to come in, we are circling up for a cheer before going to bat to start the 5th. PU says hold on, hold the defense, and says he saw he ball bounce off the batter/runner while she was in the box, foul ball, runner back to 3B, batter back in box.
Why not call the ball foul right away? I actually saw it hit batter as well, probably had better angle, as hit the front leg of batter, but when he did not initially call foul, I figured he had not seen it, and was not going to dispute umpire (whom we get a lot and I really like).
Of course, at that point, P who was kinda cruising, starts to fall apart and/or get tired, walks a ton of batters, and on coach pitching once 4 ball count is reached with bases loaded, hit results in 3 runs scoring. we give up 4 runs total that half inning, proceed to tie it in top of 5th, but then hit drop dead time, so score reverts.
I am all for getting the call right, but at what point does the mistake made become irreversible?
batter hits ball, bounces in box or on plate, then into fair territory, but barely. F2 picks up ball, tags out runner attempting to come home, PU (only umpire) calls girl out. F1 and F2 immediately start to hustle towards dugout, I call out for rest of defense to come in, we are circling up for a cheer before going to bat to start the 5th. PU says hold on, hold the defense, and says he saw he ball bounce off the batter/runner while she was in the box, foul ball, runner back to 3B, batter back in box.
Why not call the ball foul right away? I actually saw it hit batter as well, probably had better angle, as hit the front leg of batter, but when he did not initially call foul, I figured he had not seen it, and was not going to dispute umpire (whom we get a lot and I really like).
Of course, at that point, P who was kinda cruising, starts to fall apart and/or get tired, walks a ton of batters, and on coach pitching once 4 ball count is reached with bases loaded, hit results in 3 runs scoring. we give up 4 runs total that half inning, proceed to tie it in top of 5th, but then hit drop dead time, so score reverts.
I am all for getting the call right, but at what point does the mistake made become irreversible?