who would you give the error to? The 3b who didn't charge the ball or the pitcher who didnt?
The plays I am referring to would have been simple plays for the 3b. Pushed down the line to the point that it would be extremely difficult for the pitcher to make a play on them. When reviewing the "ordinary effort" phrase below, this is exactly how I would have ruled them. Not only would they have been simple routine plays for our travel ball team, but would have been the same for all of the high school teams we have played so far. When the one team we played realized that the 3b was not making any effort to get to the ball, you could tell they made a concerted effort to push the ball in her direction in order to take advantage of that. Mistakes are going to happen, but when a player clearly doesn't even try, I don't think that should be held against the pitcher.
"A key phrase in determining whether a play is an error or not is if the fielder could have “handled the ball with ordinary effort”, and does not then it is an error. Some key points: A fielder can get an error even if he doesn’t touch the ball
The comment after Rule 10.12(a)(1) says “…It is not necessary that the fielder touch the ball to be charged with an error. … For example, the official scorer shall charge an infielder with an error when a ground ball passes to either side of such infielder if, in the official scorer’s judgement, a fielder at that position making ordinary effort would have fielded such ground ball and retired a runner.”
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