LDS

Yes, OBR rules. The batter might have hit the ball twice on one swing. The ball did not bounce and he did not let go of bat. Only the sound where it sounded like the ping of the bat twice. I asked the tournament director and other umpires after the game and got many answers. I had them tell me live ball, foul ball and batter is out. I have this team again tomorrow in bracket play and want to have the correct answer for the coach if he asks. I also looked online and there were many instances of MLB players doing this and they were given base hits or live balls based on umpires interpretation on whether the double hit was intentional or not.

12 year old boys baseball - USSSA - Batter swings at a pitch and hits ground ball the 3rd base. 3rd baseman throws him out at first. I'm the field umpire. The head coach for the team that just hit the baseball said you could hear the sound of the baseball hitting the bat twice. I heard the same thing but wasn't sure what happened. After discussing with the plate umpire, we let the play stand as a ground out to third. If the bat did contact the baseball twice in one swing while the batter was in the box, what would the proper call be? Play on, since accidental, foul and dead ball? I've tried looking up in the rule book but couldn't find a definitive answer.

USSSA - 14's - On a tag play, if while applying a tag and the ball pops out of the fielders glove, is the runner still out if the fielder recatches the ball before it hits the ground. I saw this happen last week and the umpire for that game said that as long as the fielder regains control of the ball before it hits the ground the runner is still out regardless if he is tagged again or not. I would have said the fielder did not have control of the ball, so runner is safe. What is the rule on that?

Baseball USSSA Rules - If a batted ball ricochets off a base and it hits a baserunner in fair territory is runner out even if he would not have been hit without the ricochet?

12 year old USSSA Baseball Rules. Runner on 3rd base with 1 out. Runner heads home on a passed ball. Catcher grabs that ball and flips towards home without looking. As runner is crossing the plate the ball hits the batter who was about 6 or 7 feet up the 3rd base line and about 3 feet behind it. Is this an automatic out on the runner or a no call since the runner was going to be safe anyway.

Is OBR and FED different when it comes to this rule?

Pitcher in the stretch position is in the process of coming set. Once the ball and hands come together this pitcher has all kinds of movement before he finally comes to a complete pause. Question is, in the process of all the movement before coming to the actual pause, if one of the movements is turning his left shoulder towards first base is this a balk? Even if he hasn't stopped movement to become set yet? I had this happen in a game. I wasn't sure so I didn't call it a balk and nobody complained. It was a right handed pitcher and he didn't do it every time. He moved all over the place every time before the final pause but turning his left shoulder to first base wasn't done every time. After game I asked other umpires and half of them said they would call it a balk and the other half would not. I want to get this correct next time and I know I can get the correct answer on this forum.

USSSA rules ages 9 - 14. When the catcher misses or drops 3rd strike, when is the batter/runner declared out if he doesn't run to 1st base right away? I see this a lot and it's more of an issue when the batters team is in the 3rd base dugout. I've asked many other umpires and they all seem to have a different opinion. In MLB I've read the batter pretty much has the entire circle around home plate as that boundry. I've had some umpires tell me if they take one step towards the 3rd base dugout they are giving their self up. That doesn't seem fair because if their dugout is on 1st base side it would be harder to tell if they were giving their self up. I don't know if it should be as much lead way as MLB but what is the general rule. I like to give them 4 to 5 steps towards the dugout before declaring them out.

Thank you. That makes perfect sense!

When calling a balk on a pitcher that doesn't come set, 80% of the time the pitcher delivers the pitch anyway. When that happens, I know it's a live ball if the batter hits the pitch and the offense gets to choose if it is balk or not based on the outcome of the play. If the batter doesn't swing or swings and misses what is the call? I've heard that it is a ball regardless, I've heard it's only a ball if it's ball four otherwise count remains the same and I've also heard it is nothing, count remains the same. It is USSSA baseball rules. Can someone help clarify this for me?

USSSA and OBR rules is what the league and tournaments I umpire use. Thank you for all the helpful information.

Not trying to be difficult. Just trying to understand. That’s why I love this forum.

Umpiring for 6 years and still learn something new almost every tournament. Interesting that Major League Umpire says that within the box means that if any part of your foot is in the box that means within the box. See video.

Had a question come up regarding batters box. Is it true that as long as both feet are touching a portion of the batters box that batter is considered within the batters box? If this is true couldn’t you technically be stepping on the plate and it be considered within the box as long as heal is touching batters box line?

Tournament started Thursday so there were 4 games per day and 5 on Sunday. Thank you for all the great advice!