- Jan 8, 2019
- 672
- 93
First, the umpire in question readily admitted he blew the call. Second, he made plenty more mistakes.
The situation
Semifinal USA Softball rules tourney game, two outs, runners at 1st and 2nd (largely inconsequential to the play). Batter has two strikes, and lays down a two-strike bunt. Umpire calls dead ball, mistakenly thinking that the batter is out on the attempt alone (new and learning blue). We thought that the ball must have made contact with B1 or bat making it foul, and therefore the out. Defense clears field, offense grabs gloves and takes fielding positions, but no warm up pitches thrown..
B1's coach realizes that ball was fair (call by blue was dead ball, not foul ball), and did not contact anything, and protests. Umpire acknowledges the mistake, but does not know how to fix it.
After about 10 minutes (really) in a 1:15 no new inning limit game, the decision was nothing can be done, move on to the next half inning. B1 coach wanted a do over (two runners on and power hitter on deck).
What is the correct fix?
The situation
Semifinal USA Softball rules tourney game, two outs, runners at 1st and 2nd (largely inconsequential to the play). Batter has two strikes, and lays down a two-strike bunt. Umpire calls dead ball, mistakenly thinking that the batter is out on the attempt alone (new and learning blue). We thought that the ball must have made contact with B1 or bat making it foul, and therefore the out. Defense clears field, offense grabs gloves and takes fielding positions, but no warm up pitches thrown..
B1's coach realizes that ball was fair (call by blue was dead ball, not foul ball), and did not contact anything, and protests. Umpire acknowledges the mistake, but does not know how to fix it.
After about 10 minutes (really) in a 1:15 no new inning limit game, the decision was nothing can be done, move on to the next half inning. B1 coach wanted a do over (two runners on and power hitter on deck).
What is the correct fix?