Infield fly/boundary call

[Guest Kyle]

I am a coach, not an umpire!!  Situation from game last night.  Bases loaded, no outs, popup behind third, obvious infield fly rule.  No dispute there.  Wind was howling, infield hard as a rock, outcome was the ball dropped behind third, kicked into foul ground and went under the fence.  Umpires called it dead.  My question is why would runners not move up a base?  Probably will never see it again, but haven’t gotten the same answer from several local umpires!   Thanks!  

[yawetag]

Lou B is correct on the awards. Two bases at time of pitch if the ball first fell in fair territory beyond third base and then went out of play.

I want to touch on the Infield Fly (IFF) situation though. Kyle, you mention that that this was an "obvious infield fly" yet you follow it with the "wind was howling". One of the pieces of IFF is that the fly must be able to be caught by an infielder using ordinary effort. In a situation where the wind is so strong that it can divert a fly ball at least 30 feet after hitting the ground, I don't know that I can call an IFF on that.

It would depend completely on how the infielders are acting. If they're camped under the spot and the ball just falls next to them, I've probably got an IFF. But if they're running around like they're being blown by the same wind and can't seem to locate where the ball's going to fall, it's going to be hard to call IFF in that situation.

No matter what happened with the IFF, though, all runners (and the batter-runner if it wasn't IFF) should have been awarded two bases from time of pitch. In this situation:

• If IFF was called, you've got R3 and R2 scoring, R1 on 3B, and the batter called out. You now have R3 with 1 out.
• If IFF was not called, you've got R3 and R2 scoring, R1 on 3B, and the batter on 2B. You now have R2/R3 with 0 outs.

[Lou B]

If the ball landed beyond third in foul territory, no IFF, just a foul ball.

If the ball landed in fair territory behind third base it's an IFF and if the ball then went out of bounds under the fence the ball is dead and the runner(s) award is two bases.

[Guest Kyle]

23 hours ago, yawetag said:

Lou B is correct on the awards. Two bases at time of pitch if the ball first fell in fair territory beyond third base and then went out of play.

I want to touch on the Infield Fly (IFF) situation though. Kyle, you mention that that this was an "obvious infield fly" yet you follow it with the "wind was howling". One of the pieces of IFF is that the fly must be able to be caught by an infielder using ordinary effort. In a situation where the wind is so strong that it can divert a fly ball at least 30 feet after hitting the ground, I don't know that I can call an IFF on that.

It would depend completely on how the infielders are acting. If they're camped under the spot and the ball just falls next to them, I've probably got an IFF. But if they're running around like they're being blown by the same wind and can't seem to locate where the ball's going to fall, it's going to be hard to call IFF in that situation.

No matter what happened with the IFF, though, all runners (and the batter-runner if it wasn't IFF) should have been awarded two bases from time of pitch. In this situation:

• If IFF was called, you've got R3 and R2 scoring, R1 on 3B, and the batter called out. You now have R3 with 1 out.
• If IFF was not called, you've got R3 and R2 scoring, R1 on 3B, and the batter on 2B. You now have R2/R3 with 0 outs.

Thank you very much for the explanation!  I Appreciate the further explanation of the IFF as well.  To answer your question, they were camped, just fell between/behind the SS/3B.  So I didn’t have any issue with IFF being called.  I just had never seen an IFF situation coupled with a boundary call!   Probably something I’ll never see again!