BR Touches Coach

[YOCOACH]

Had somebody ask me this the other day and really didn't know how to respond so I thought I'd ask here for the ruling.

NSA rules in a 14U outdoor tournament.

Coach's team was at bat and he was coaching first. Batter hits a liner to RCF and coach tells BR to round. F9 fields the ball and throws to F3. The BR, in an effort to get back quickly, over runs first and runs into coach who has both hands above his head in the air (as he doesn't want to be seen as helping his player) and is standing squarely in the coach's box. The ball itself from F9 is a flyer and overthrown. BR takes off for second and is safe. PU calls the BR out based on the coach touching her. Two questions: Assuming that the play happened exactly as stated, is this a judgement call situation? Secondly, if it isn't, is this the correct call if called strictly by the rules?

 

[redhotcoach]

The rule starts "in judgement of the umpire".....coach physically assists runner by touching or holding.....assists in leaving or returning to base.

As a judgement call I could see calling runner out if it was a close play at 1st. It was overthrown so Imo I don't think it should be called.

 

[MTR]

Coach's team was at bat and he was coaching first. Batter hits a liner to RCF and coach tells BR to round. F9 fields the ball and throws to F3. The BR, in an effort to get back quickly, over runs first and runs into coach who has both hands above his head in the air (as he doesn't want to be seen as helping his player) and is standing squarely in the coach's box. The ball itself from F9 is a flyer and overthrown. BR takes off for second and is safe. PU calls the BR out based on the coach touching her. Two questions: Assuming that the play happened exactly as stated, is this a judgement call situation? Secondly, if it isn't, is this the correct call if called strictly by the rules?

Cannot speak for NSA, but with ASA and to the best of my knowledge just about every other rule set, this was not a valid call if it happened exactly at presented.

The rule sets of which I am aware, specifically forbid assisting the runner. If the coach did not move or make any motion toward the runner or to push the runner away or in any direction, I wouldn't call a thing.

Of course, the opposition is going to TELL you what is in the rules and demand the out, but the umpire needs to use his/her head and see determine if there was actually any assistance. If there was, call it; if not, don't.

BTW, being in the coach's box is irrelevant.

 

[David Carter]

IF strictly as stated I would be hard pressed to call it an out, but that is just me.

A 100% valid argument could be made that the base coach assisted the BR by slowing the BR progress in other words maybe without running into the base coach she takes another 3 or 4 step past first base and instead of going to second would have been thrown out trying to getting back after falling, again I'm not sure how much momentum she had but this could have been the umpires thought process.

There are many guys who ump all the time that on this forum that can give you a better answer but this really feels like a HTBT judgement call, as the coach don't throw your hands up as we are always telling our girls move your feet really gotta try hard to get out of the way.

 

[MTR]

A 100% valid argument could be made that the base coach assisted the BR by slowing the BR progress in other words maybe without running into the base coach she takes another 3 or 4 step past first base and instead of going to second would have been thrown out trying to getting back after falling, again I'm not sure how much momentum she had but this could have been the umpires thought process.

Actually, it is not a valid argument and is the type of thinking that gets people in trouble. You make calls on what is in front of you, not the woulda, coulda or shouldas. If you do, the "what ifs" never end and all of a sudden you are making up rules to support your imagination.

 

[YOCOACH]

Thank you all for the responses. I'll forward the information. I thought it might be a judgement call but I wasn't sure.