Batter runs to first on ball 3

[craigl58]

OBR rules, 16 year old summer ball, first and second occupied, batter goes to first on ball 3,the base runners advance without a play I'm yelling at the batter telling him its only ball 3 after they advance a base he comes back to finish his at bat.Thats when my partner makes the baserunners go back I'm thinking its up to the defense to know what the count is and they could have got a couple of outs. The coaches didn't argue the ruling, but I felt unsure it was the right call. It didn't make a difference, next pitch was ball 4, I would like to know the correct way to handle this.......Thanks Craig

[Rich Ives]

OBR rules, 16 year old summer ball, first and second occupied, batter goes to first on ball 3,the base runners advance without a play I'm yelling at the batter telling him its only ball 3 after they advance a base he comes back to finish his at bat.Thats when my partner makes the baserunners go back I'm thinking its up to the defense to know what the count is and they could have got a couple of outs. The coaches didn't argue the ruling, but I felt unsure it was the right call. It didn't make a difference, next pitch was ball 4, I would like to know the correct way to handle this.......Thanks Craig

Do what you did. Your partner screwed up.

[mstaylor]

The runners should have stayed but your partner screwed up, the coaches screwed up and didn't complain. If questioned fix it.

[BrianC14]

R1 and R2 legally advanced to the next base. Whether or not their coach knows that is irrelevant.

The RIGHT thing to do would be to put them back to 3B & 2B before the next pitch.

Then tell you partner to pull his head out of his arse.

[txump81]

Had a similar situation in LLSB Majors. Batter ran on the uncaught 2ND strike and R2 and R3 advanced and scored. BR was then thrown out at 1st for an out. However, it was only strike 2 so she came back. Not having seen this or read any cases of this, I brought BR back as she only had 2 strikes and the OC put his runners back. I now know that was a legal advance and the run should have counted and R2 stayed at 3B. Defense should know what count is...I agree.

Here's a question and a smart coach with good players could teach his batters this exact play. How do you decide if this was intentional and then what is the penalty?

And another...uncaught 3rd strike with 1B occupied. BR, R1, etc advance. DC comes out and questions umpire and also OC and OC says "We learned that from _____, they do it all the time." Does this now come under intentional confusion?

[noumpere]

Here's a question and a smart coach with good players could teach his batters this exact play. How do you decide if this was intentional and then what is the penalty?

You don't and there isn't.

[Rich Ives]

Does this now come under intentional confusion?

Yes.

Perfectly legal though.

[Dragon29]

txump81,

As others have indicated, this is all perfectly legal and there's nothing you should do.

The reason there's no need to 'penalize' them for playing that way (other than the fact that no rule would back you up!) is that the defense already has that opportunity - runners advancing in this manner are easy outs all over the infield and it's no-one's fault (not even the offense) if they're too stupid to take advantage of them.

[MPLSMatt]

Yep - had this happen reverse last week. 1 out, R1, R2, dropped 3rd strike. I see BR runs - when R1 and R2 see this they run too. I yell "batters out" once but he doesn't stop. Catcher realizing there is only one out throws to F4 who nails R3... We now have a double play and a coach who is chewing out the baserunners.

[Dragon29]

Matt,

Consider yourself lucky the coach chewed on his own players.

I had something almost identical happen last season in LL Jrs and the OM actually started trying to convince me that I shouldn't allow an out because his runner was confused. When I made the point that he was confused by his other runner, the conversation ended very quickly.

[BlueKen]

As a first base coach, I had a runner on 1st with 1 out and two strikes on the batter. My R1 took off for 2nd on the pitch and it was a D3K. I yelled at my batter to run even though I knew he was out. He ran, F2 threw the ball to F3 and my baserunner trotted on over to 3B. I think it was smart coaching.

[calablue]

Yep - had this happen reverse last week. 1 out, R1, R2, dropped 3rd strike. I see BR runs - when R1 and R2 see this they run too. I yell "batters out" once but he doesn't stop. Catcher realizing there is only one out throws to F4 who nails R3... We now have a double play and a coach who is chewing out the baserunners.

I am assuming that by R3 you mean the runner going to 3B because ther were only R1 and R2 at the start of the play. What I am wondering is where the hell was F5 if "F4...nails R3"? He must be one fast sucker to get to 3B from his position at 2B before a runner can get to 3B from 2B!!!! Derek Jeter in his younger days???:clap:

[catoblue]

2B!!!! Derek Jeter in his younger days???

Jeter is F6!!!! :ranton:

[calablue]

Jeter is F6!!!!

I know Jeter is F6. The point was that IF it was F4 who made this play, then he was really far away from his position , in a place no one would expect him to be. LIKE Jeter was when he made the toss to the catcher from the foul side of the 1B line a few years back. I was just needling the poster a little.