Infield Pop-Up Scoring Question

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Dec 2, 2012
127
16
In a high school game last evening our leadoff batter hit a high pop-up that came down in an area between the pitcher, the 2nd basemen, and the 1st baseman. The pop-up was high enough that all three girls could have, and did with minimal effort, get to the ball in plenty of time to field the ball. None did. It hit the playing surface without being touched.

Conditions at the time: Late afternoon, no lights, overcast skies.

Hit or Error? If an error, who is charged with the error?
 
Dec 2, 2012
127
16
I originally scored it an error on the pitcher (she was closest), but went back and changed it to a hit. It was an easy out and should have been caught by someone, but a local travel ball coach walked over to me and asked how I scored the play. When I replied an error, he asked on who? Then he said it has to be a hit (he was not the batter's father). All there players surrounded the ball and all reached up to field it... none of the three got a glove on it. I spent some time today with my nose in a rule book looking for some guidance and found what I believe supports the local coach's position:

A base hit is credited to a batter when she advances to a base safely:
14.3.14 If the ball is not touched because of confusion as to who should have fielded it
 
Last edited:
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
If my DD were pitching I'd have been really unhappy to do it, but I'd also have scored it a hit. ;)
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
Glove contact, while sometimes telling, is not the determining factor. There are scenarios in which the ball could have hit a glove and it still been a hit, or missed the glove and been an error.
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
Error on the 2B if I am keeping score.

If it is a play that I would have viewed as "routine" I would have scored it as an error on the 2b. When a ball has a chance to be caught by more than one fielder, I use this hierarchy; CF, either corner OF, SS, 2b, corner inf, p, c. But like others have said, some of it will depend on the situation. I charged our CF for an error last night on a ball she didn't touch, and her dad was not too happy with me. It appeared as though she read the ball well off the bat, but jogged 5 or 6 steps and then stopped allowing the ball to drop in front of her. Any level of hustle would have led to an easy out in my opinion, so I charged her the error.

NOTE: If this was junior high (or 10u/12u travel or rec) I may have opted for a hit. But at the high school level I hold them to a higher standard.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,478
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top