Overthrow dead ball

[jam303030]

Rule questions u10 girls fastpitch:

Runners on 2nd and 3rd. Ground ball to short and shortstop overthrows first base hitting bat boy by fence. Ump calls a dead ball and sends girls back to 2nd and 3rd even though they had got to the next base before it hit the bat boy. Hitter was allowed to stay on first. Is a dead ball correct and should they have had to return to their base.

 

[RADcatchers]

? So the runner on third scored before the ball pegged a person on the field who shouldn't have been on the field?

From what you are commenting if the runners were that expedient and had *already *gained *possession of the next base and scored across the plate they would have done so before the pegged erroneous person situation occurred. That should not have been reverted. Ohhh wait i'm not an umpire?

Going to guess that potentially the Umpire might have viewed what the runners were doing may have been different than seeing them already gain position/or forward progress to the next base and plate scoring... previous to the errant throw? ?‍?

 

[jam303030]

? So the runner on third scored before the ball pegged a person on the field who shouldn't have been on the field?

From what you are commenting if the runners were that expedient and had *already *gained *possession of the next base and scored across the plate they would have done so before the pegged erroneous person situation occurred. That should not have been reverted.

Going to guess that potentially the Umpire might have viewed what the runners were doing may have been different than seeing them already gain position/or forward progress to the next base and plate scoring... previous to the errant throw? ?‍?

Yes the runner from 3rd for sure crossed home prior not sure about girl from 2nd to 3rd. My argument was the girl should have been allowed to score.

Also can a coach come sit behind the plate and coach from the bleachers to give signals to the catcher? Their dugout was about even with 3rd base.

 

[jam303030]

My arguement to the ump was the runner on 3rd should have been allowed to score and if he is going to enforce the dead ball rule he needs to enforce their coach coaching from the dugout and staying in the coaches box while he is coaching 3rd. He would walk along the foul line up and down on the dirt.

 

[Strike2]

From USSSA rule interpretations...

"When any dugout personnel enters the field of play and interferes..."
EFFECT: Dead ball; runner closest to home out; all others return to last base touched.

The Umpire may have applied the exception for a thrown ball hitting an on-deck batter that says...
"if no play is obvious, no player is out, but runners shall return to the last base touched at the time of
interference". Where those runners actually were was a "have to be there" situation.

The call appears reasonable...perhaps even charitable. A thrown ball hitting someone from the offensive team not running bases is always going to be a dead ball. Baserunners aren't going to advance because of that. Keep the batboy in the dugout when the ball is in play.

 

[CoachJD]

The call appears reasonable...perhaps even charitable. A thrown ball hitting someone from the offensive team not running bases is always going to be a dead ball. Baserunners aren't going to advance because of that. Keep the batboy in the dugout when the ball is in play.

Small correction: A thrown ball hitting a first/third base coach is a live ball unless the coach intentionally interfered with the throw.

But, yes, keep people in the dugout. I don't really like the idea of bat boys/girls in youth games. Too much of a wild card. Just have the next player up grab the bat.

 

[CoachJD]

Also can a coach come sit behind the plate and coach from the bleachers to give signals to the catcher? Their dugout was about even with 3rd base.

Not NFHS. Pretty sure all the major organizations have similar rules against this. Team personnel is limited to certain areas, and the bleachers is not one of them.

 

[Strike2]

Small correction: A thrown ball hitting a first/third base coach is a live ball unless the coach intentionally interfered with the throw.

But, yes, keep people in the dugout. I don't really like the idea of bat boys/girls in youth games. Too much of a wild card. Just have the next player up grab the bat.

I know that can be true in baseball sanctions, but there's nothing about coach interference having to be intentional to cause a dead ball in USSSA rules. I've even personally seen it called that way.

2024 USSSA rules...dead ball table...page 59

 

[Rolling Hard]

10U batboy? Cute or dangerous?

 

[chinamigarden]

My arguement to the ump was the runner on 3rd should have been allowed to score and if he is going to enforce the dead ball rule he needs to enforce their coach coaching from the dugout and staying in the coaches box while he is coaching 3rd. He would walk along the foul line up and down on the dirt.

Basically telling an ump that “if you want to enforce this rule then you need to enforce all of them” this never works out for the coach saying it. Yes coaches should not coach from the bleachers. And if you brought that up in a separate discussion you might have gotten satisfaction. But the fact that your team has a batboy and that batboy wound up interfering with a live ball. Be happy you didn’t wind up with the runner from third being called out.