TLo

Thank you. Very much appreciated.

Correct. The batter got to 1st and stayed at first. F5 was playing a ways off 3rd base bag and after fielding the ball they ran toward the runner, F6 covered 3rd base. F5 was just running toward the runner (on contact the runner took a few more steps away from third) as they saw the runner was in 'no mans land' and wanted to prevent the run from scoring. As F5 was running towards the runner, the runner went back in the direction of 3rd. The runner got too far away for F5 to tag them and therefore F5 threw the ball to F6 (who was covering 3rd). F6 went to tag the runner but did not catch the ball clean and thus dropped the ball while attempting the tag. The runner gets back to 3rd safe, but their momentum takes them off the bag. Meanwhile F6 now picks up the ball and tries to tag the runner but the runner instead runs back to 2nd base, because it is open. I wished we would have had it on video. LOL

Scenario: No Outs. Runner on third base and no other runners on base. Next batter comes up and after being pitched to, hits the ball directly to the third base player. The batter gets to first base and stays on first. The third base player gets the runner (that was on third) in a run down between third and home. Short stop moves over and covers third base as the third base player moves towards the runner. Third base player throws ball to shortstop (who is covering third base) as the runner decided to go back to third. Shortstop that was covering third drops the ball and misses the tag. However, the runner touches third base but their momentum pulls them off third base. The short stop picks up the ball and goes to tag the runner but misses the tag. The runner sees second base is open and runs to second base. No defensive players were covering second base and the runner successfully makes it to second base. Questions: Once a player advances to a base on one play can they go backwards to an open base on a subsequent play? Is the runner, that went from third back to second base, safe? Where I'm getting stuck is whether or not the runner can revert back to a previous base on a subsequent play. But my gut tells me this would result in all players being safe with runners on first and second and still no outs. Next batter up and PLAY BALL! Thanks for your feedback.