I saw something I've never seen before in my 40+ years. I don't think the umpires got this right, but I'm not sure what the correct action was. It's probably easy, but the easy is escaping me.
NFHS rules Two strikes on the batter no one on base 1 out.
The batter swings and misses badly and on her followthrough the missed pitch hits her in the chest, and falls to the ground. The batter just stands there in the box & the catcher picks the ball up and returns it to the pitcher in the circle.
The umpires call time and confer. They ruled it was a dropped 3rd strike, but the runner never tried to advance, and the defense never to put her out, so they declared it a dead ball, because it was in the circle and no action was taking place. Then they essentially declared a "do over." And the batter singled.
What should have happened? Is there a rule that the runner must make some action to advance to the next base? Is there a time limit for the batter to run? Is a runner refusing to run the bases a travesty of the game, even if she didn't do it on purpose? Am I missing the obvious easy ruling?
NFHS rules Two strikes on the batter no one on base 1 out.
The batter swings and misses badly and on her followthrough the missed pitch hits her in the chest, and falls to the ground. The batter just stands there in the box & the catcher picks the ball up and returns it to the pitcher in the circle.
The umpires call time and confer. They ruled it was a dropped 3rd strike, but the runner never tried to advance, and the defense never to put her out, so they declared it a dead ball, because it was in the circle and no action was taking place. Then they essentially declared a "do over." And the batter singled.
What should have happened? Is there a rule that the runner must make some action to advance to the next base? Is there a time limit for the batter to run? Is a runner refusing to run the bases a travesty of the game, even if she didn't do it on purpose? Am I missing the obvious easy ruling?