Batting out of order - what is the correct ruling?

[dbronstein]

This happened in our game last week. We have a 6 run limit per inning limit. We were batting and scored the 6th run. However, our scorer said it was only 5, so the next girl (A) batted and ended up walking. After the walk, our scorer realized her mistake and said it was 6 runs, which the other team agreed with, so inning over.

The next inning, our coach and scorer assumed the walk counted, so had the girl after A bat (B). B walked. The opposing coach said that A should have led off because her AB didn't count because the 6th run scored before she batted. The ump agreed, and called an out for A not batting and let B's walk stand and she stayed on first.

If we agree that A was the correct leadoff batter, was the batting out of order handled correctly? It seems like B should have been called out since she was the one who batted out of order. But then who would bat next?

 

[durtyd26]

IF A was the correct batter but B batted instead and walked then, on proper appeal, A would be called out and B would then bat again.


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[EdLovrich]

To answer the batting out of order question in general: 'A' was the proper batter and would have been called out, the batting order picks up from there so yes 'B' is now the proper batter.

My personal thoughts on your specific situation:

Who was the 'official' scorer? In your league is it the home book? were you the home team or your opponent? If your book was the official book and A batted in the previous inning she did so under instruction from a game official and should not have been put in jeopardy due to that.

Think of it this way, umpires loose track of count and award a walk on ball 3 with a runner on 1B. If that runner is retired because of a throw down to 2B (assuming she wasn't stealing and only advancing due to the walk) she SHOULD be put back on 1B since she only advanced due to the umpire error. Correctable mistake, batter back to the plate with proper count and runner returns to 1B, likewise, if there ISN'T a throw down to retire the runner you would not lave her at 2B when you bring the batter back to the plate since the defense didn't make a play on what they were told was a walk.

The batting out of order, in this case, IMO, is a correctable error by the game officials, you take what action you need to to restore 'justice', in this case, Batter A is up to bat and B is removed from the bases.

 

[dbronstein]

IF A was the correct batter but B batted instead and walked then, on proper appeal, A would be called out and B would then bat again.


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Thanks. It didn't make sense to me that B should stay on base.

We were home so our book was the official one. I understand what it is saying, but on the other hand since our score was the one who screwed it up, I don't mind that we were penalized for it.

 

[CoachJD]

I'm with Ed on this one.

This is an unusual situation because of a house/league rule that was retroactively applied during the previous inning.

As an umpire, when I realize the confusion came not from a team not knowing who was up, but not being sure if an entire at bat from the last inning counted, I'd just undo what batter B did to start the inning and bring batter A to the plate.

Here's a question: Is it the umpire's job to enforce run limits? I don't really expect the umpire to track this, though in my experience most do (or at least try to). In our leagues/games with the run limits, it's kind of a thing where both teams just go "hey, that's X runs" after the play and we all switch sides.

 

[dbronstein]

No it's not the umps job to track the runs, it's the teams and scorers' job. I included that issue to give context for why the batting order issue occurred.