Zachary

I recently had this come up in a game I was coaching. My runner was not tagged out and made it back, but it got me curious. My game was NFHS, so it is not illegal anyway (I did not know that), but let's assume it was FED and it was illegal. What would the penalty be if 1. the runner was tagged out or 2. the runner ran back to first, realized his mistake, and went back to second safely. Do they get one base?

Thanks, maven. The fact that R2 went back to try and touch home is probably (and oftentimes) the very reason the other team appeals. Good chance if the runner just went into the dugout there would have been no appeal, unless it was egregious. Gave the other team a free alert that he missed home.

I am also away, so do not have the exact rule, so may be a little off, but no run scores. Once the third out is made, R2 can no longer go back and touch home. But the defending team can still appeal for an advantageous fourth out, which it appears they did, which would negate the run.

NFHS

I am a coach and have gotten lots of mixed answers and calls from umpires regarding obstruction. One play in particular when my team was in the field. R2, two outs. Ball hit to sharply to the outfield, our third baseman gets in the runner's way after he has touched third base and is running home (after he rounded third base). The runner decided to stop his pursuit of home and go back to third. The throw was on the money. Obstruction was called, but the umpires said he would have been out even without the obstruction so they kept him on third. Isn't there a one base minimum? I'm thinking we were on the right side of a call here. Similar hypothetical, but R1 one out. One hop to shortstop, tailor made double play. First baseman is standing in baseline and obstructs R1. Double play is completed (and easily would have been even without the obstruction). Does R1 get second base here? I assume the out at first base would still stand? I often hear umpires say the goal is to negate the OBS, but I assume this is referring to anything outside of the one base minimum?

What if R2 was obstructed on his way to third (going all out), then is doubled off at second while running hard back toward second base. Is that just a judgement call whether the umpire believes the runner would have made it back without the obstruction, or is the runner not given the call because he was obstructed while going all out for third base?

Runner on second base, one out. Pop fly on the infield, runner takes off for whatever reason (we can say he mistakenly assumed there were two outs). He collides with the 3rd baseman (who was not the protected fielder or in position to make a play), obstruction is probably called (right), but does this protect the runner from the mistake he made if after the pop up is caught he is then doubled off of 2B?

What if BR has touched first base, but R1 has not touched second base? I assume the result would be BR only gets one base because R2 did not yet touch 2B?

Forgive me if this has already been answered. Hypothetical: Runners on 2nd and 3rd, two outs. Wild pitch, R3 scores. R2 rounds third and also comes home, and the umpire deems the batter interfered with the catcher while R2 was trying to score. Batter is out. Does the run that R3 scored count? It happened before the interference call while R2 was trying to score, but the batter was also out before reaching first base.

Base umpire made no call, as it was a foul ball. The other team just assumed it was an out without any such indication.

I was referencing making the batter aware that he struck out.

I guess you're right, if the umpires had no idea, they couldn't tell the player! But that just proves they made it up, which is the likely scenario. The other team thought it was an out because it was one of those off the foot that rolled out pretty good toward first base, and I guess the umpire did not make an assertive foul call, although it seemed obvious to me.

True. So is there zero obligation for the umpires to make the batter aware of the strikeout? Nobody knew he struck out, even the scorekeepers. It was a phantom call. But even putting that point aside, assuming he did really strike out, the umpire simply *should* make the player aware of it, but doesn't *have to* make the player aware of it?

A couple clarifications. It was actually the second batter that they ruled struck out and stayed at the plate, not the first batter. The first batter walked while the other team thought he grounded out (while it was really a foul ball). So the caught stealing was out number one, then outs two and three (according to the umpires) occurred with the second batter. This was also not 12U rec, it was a 14U travel tournament, for what it's worth. Thirdly, our batter did not actually strike out, and I think the umpires knew that (even though that is what they called). I believe they got confused by the other team running off the field and were forced to come up with a third out, and that's what we got. I talked to them about it, but I'm not in the business of making a scene. They got it wrong, we moved on and won the game.

I was the offensive coach. The umpire was definitely confused with the other team running off the field. I pleaded to check with the scorekeepers, who did not have our batter striking out, but he checked with his partner and they made the decision on their own. Their argument was that the third out was our second hitter staying up to bat after he struck out, thus we hit out of order. Mind you there was no sort of strike three signal or anything of that nature earlier in the at bat.