Hit or error?

[_MIA_]

Okay, so I'm trying to decide the appropriate call for a play in my daughters HS game yesterday.

sounds like you have decided already..

 

[Nimrod]

Had she not made the mental error, it would've been one or two steps back, max, to catch the ball. That would've been ordinary effort. It was the mental error that made it extraordinary.

Correct. If a mental error makes it extraordinary, it's still extraordinary.

I believe the rules are this way because, while sometimes unfair, it makes it more objective and consistent when the scorekeeper is simply judging a physical misplay of catching or throwing the ball at the moment the ball needs to be caught or thrown. If we start judging whether player should've been in position, it gets pretty subjective. "Player should've read the ball better: Error. Player should've been in a bigger hurry: Error.'' Too many judgments. Stats will be less meaningful because of the inconsistency around the league or the country. So instead of that, have scorekeepers focus on physical misplays at the point the ball needs to be caught, IMO. (There may be some exceptions, so I don't want to box myself in, but that's the general idea, IMO)

 

[Dabears17]

I can't find this situation in the NFHS rulebook or casebook, but I'm pretty sure that is not an error. A mental error is not scored as error.

In my DD's HS game last night against a weaker team, my DD hit a ball directly to the shortstop, but the shortstop got confused and went to cover 2nd instead of fielding the ball. Hit.

My DD has a tendency to hit the ball hard right at people that they can't quite field cleanly, so she reaches base safely. In the Covid shortened season last spring she ROE 8 times out of 37 At Bats. She had a batting average of 0.270. Since she had 5 more ROE than any other player on her team I'd like to say she had 15 hits in 37 at bats for an average of 0.405, if not 0.486. But her BA was 0.270.

 

[Nimrod]

In my DD's HS game last night against a weaker team, my DD hit a ball directly to the shortstop, but the shortstop got confused and went to cover 2nd instead of fielding the ball. Hit.

My DD probably had 2,000 at-bats in her career, but among those that I remember was one exactly like this when she was 10-years-old. It was a hit-and-run, but DD didn't mean to hit it there. Total luck. But I happily entered "Single!"

 

[Lobster Birch]

It’s a double.

 

[nightskiier]

From the 2022-2023 NCAA softball rule book as an example.

“14.21 No Error Is Charged
No error is charged to a fielder in the following situations:
…

14.21.8 When a fly ball is misjudged and the fielder cannot recover in time to make the play.”

Score it as a double.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cannonball]

Double. You are discussing HS ball and not professional ball. You can't assume a player can catch the ball nor read it correctly. There are things like wind, sun, ... that might affect the play. Do you next make a judgment on a ball in the 6 hole? Will you penalize your hitters by the same criteria?

 

[LEsoftballdad]

sounds like you have decided already..

I've totally decided already. As far as I'm concerned, it's an error, whether physical or mental is irrelevant. The CF ran in after the inning and went right up to my daughter and said, "That was my mistake. That one's on me, not you. I should've had that ball."

The problem is scorekeeping is so subjective. The example I posted above was from a MLB game in which the official scorer ruled a ball that dropped in as an error to protect a no-hitter. He ruled the player should've made the play easily. In the end, a clean single happened with two outs in the ninth, so it was rendered moot.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Double. You are discussing HS ball and not professional ball. You can't assume a player can catch the ball nor read it correctly. There are things like wind, sun, ... that might affect the play. Do you next make a judgment on a ball in the 6 hole? Will you penalize your hitters by the same criteria?

Actually, I penalized my own daughter for a hit she had in her next at bat. She hit a sinking liner to center that was a clean single, but the CF misplayed the bounce into a double. I scored it as a single with an advance on the error. She still got the hit, but not the XBH.

Oddly enough, the other team scored it as a double for my daughter.

 

[Shiloh]

I can't find this situation in the NFHS rulebook or casebook, but I'm pretty sure that is not an error. A mental error is not scored as error.

In my DD's HS game last night against a weaker team, my DD hit a ball directly to the shortstop, but the shortstop got confused and went to cover 2nd instead of fielding the ball. Hit.

My DD has a tendency to hit the ball hard right at people that they can't quite field cleanly, so she reaches base safely. In the Covid shortened season last spring she ROE 8 times out of 37 At Bats. She had a batting average of 0.270. Since she had 5 more ROE than any other player on her team I'd like to say she had 15 hits in 37 at bats for an average of 0.405, if not 0.486. But her BA was 0.270.

8U-12U my DD would wail the ball at the fielders, who could never handle it. I would score them errors.
But then I began to pay closer attention to MLB scoring and realized that my ROEs were too harsh.

Your DD's BA was not .270.