Overthrown and out of play: which base should she be at?

[cmspock]

Runner at 1B. Batter hits at single to CF and tries to stretch it to 2B on a bad cut but realizes she won't make it to 2B so she retreated to 1B. SS tries to throw the ball back to 1B to get the retreating runner but 1B is playing way in front of the base so she would never make the tag.

Meanwhile, the lead runner is now heading to 3B. First baseman knowing she will never get the girl coming back to 1st overthrows the third-baseman and the ball goes out of play.

When the throw was made to 3B, the batter-runner turned again to head back to 2B before the ball went out of play.

Lead runner was given home. Where should the batter-runner end up? 2B or 3B

 

[SoCal_Dad]

Runners are awarded 2 bases from the time the ball left F3's hand. B-R should have been awarded 3B regardless of whether they were on 1B or on their way to 2B.

 

[cmspock]

Umpire said she was retreating to 1B and only gave her 2B.

Our coach umped baseball for 20 years and argued that she should get third since she already crossed first but the ump said since she was returning to 1B, he was giving her 1B as the base she was headed to plus 2B.

 

[BretMan]

So, the coach who used to be an umpire and actually knew the rule then filed a protest, because he's an umpire and knows how that works, and the call was overturned. Right?

 

[cmspock]

Tournament rules say no protests,umpires calls are final for pool play and brackets. To top it off, it was the UIC doing our game.

Fortunately, we did win by one run, but that runner on 2nd only got to 3rd on a PB, but never scored. She's the fastest kid on our team so she probably would have made it home if she had been on 3rd.

 

[BretMan]

That's even worse than the ones that charge you a hundred bucks to file a protest!

Fortunate that this bad call didn't affect you winning the game. Everyone's "oh, well" attitude might be a whole lot different if you had lost by one run. And yet...the rules provide a course of action that an offended team can take- free of charge- when a rule is misapplied. Too bad so many tournaments choose to ignore that rule.

If a protest had been allowed here, a wrong would have been righted and an umpire would have learned a rule that he likely would never misapply again. That, to me, is a win-win.

 

[cmspock]

Happened again in a bracket game today. Runner was retreating from between 1st and 2nd to 1st and the ball was overthrown to 1B and out of play. The ump (a different one) said she only gets 2nd. Coach almost blew a gasket and actually said to the ump, "I can't believe 2 guys in same weekend don't know how to award bases on an out of play ball."

Then in our championship game, the UIC from the previous game was talking to the 2 umps doing our game on the field before play started and told both umps about our coach causing trouble and told them the whole story about him arguing the bases awarded the previous day. I could here him telling them that the runner was returning to 1st base so there is no way he was going to award her 3rd on an overthrow because she wasn't going forward. Both umps laughed and agreed with him. Fortunately, the last game had long fences to the chance of an overthrow going out was slim.

Are you all sure the ASA rule is 2 bases from the time of the errant throw, because here in the Chicago burbs, apparently there is some confusion?

 

[BretMan]

Totally sure.

 

[Lenski]

Are you all sure the ASA rule is 2 bases from the time of the errant throw, because here in the Chicago burbs, apparently there is some confusion?

As Bretman points out, the rule is two bases from the time of the errant throw. Once a runner establishes a base, the rule is two bases from the time of the throw, and it does not matter if the runner is retreating to an already established base.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

Are you all sure the ASA rule is 2 bases from the time of the errant throw, because here in the Chicago burbs, apparently there is some confusion?

You can verify it with the local association's UIC. Here's the contact info from Chicago Metro's website:
Umpire-In-Chief (Fast Pitch)
Steven Verive
Sua110@hotmail.com
Bus: (630) 816-7927
Res: (630) 701-2317

After he confirms the correct ruling, you should report the tourney's UIC to him so they can be educated.