3-man with overthrow into RF

[grayhawk]

Had this situation come up on Wednesday and wanted to get opinions.

3 man mechanics.  R1.  U1 in A and U3 in deep B.  The batter bunts in front of the plate, the catcher fields it, throws to first but airmails the ball down the RF line.  Both R1 and the BR are advancing.  Here's the question - what does U1 do?

Since the ball wasn't batted into the outfield, the standard rotation is not on.  It seems like U1's options are (1) follow the errant throw down the line to observe if the ball gets lodged or goes out of play, (2) trail the BR into second from the outside and take any secondary play on the BR at second base, or (3) bust in on the overthrow and make all calls (primary and secondary) on the BR at second base.

I was U3 on this play and the result was that U1 stayed in foul territory and thought the rotation was still on (but did not head home when he saw that PU wasn't rotating).  R1 went all the way home and scored.  BR went all the way to third base and slid in well ahead of the throw.  For my part, I took R1 into third (thinking that U1 would take the BR), but looked back over my shoulder and saw that wasn't the case and picked up the BR's touch at second and was at the cutout when he slid into third.  My mistake was that I committed to R1 too early and should have split the difference between second and third before taking R1 all the way to the 3B cutout.

This isn't a play that is normally pregamed, so we "just had to umpire" and all turned out well.  I had both runners covered, though I would have been out of position if there would have been a play in the BR at second base.

Thoughts?

 

[ALStripes17]

CCA page 112 says that PU has all overthrows when we start with R1 only EXCEPT when the crew has rotated in which case, U1 takes all overthrows.


I imagine the PU has to get the fair/foul read on the infield and then bust back over to 1B for secondary responsibility of RLI and overthrows. As U1, I would make a read to either get inside or stay outside with the BR to 2B depending on where the overthrow goes in relation to 2B.

[MidAmUmp]

It's not a play that gets pregamed, but the reasons for rotating should be and this situation should be covered. Basically in my pregame I say we will rotate if a ball is hit to the outfield. We will not rotate if a ball is thrown to the outfield.

U1 has 2 options -

1. Go with the overthrow only if there is trouble down the right field line ie: tarp, an occupied bullpen, unseen area from the plate, no fence, or lined dead ball area.

2. Take responsibility for the B/R. I'd be careful rimming this play with a potential throw coming from right field directly to 2nd base. 

Personally as U1 I would get my angle which on this play would be close to the baseline between 1st and 2nd. Once the ball is overthrown I would enter the infield and mirror the B/R. 

[noumpere]

I agree with Mid-Am ump.

[maven]

Me too. Push gives better coverage and doesn't leave U3 hanging out to dry.

[grayhawk]

1 hour ago, MidAmUmp said:

It's not a play that gets pregamed, but the reasons for rotating should be and this situation should be covered. Basically in my pregame I say we will rotate if a ball is hit to the outfield. We will not rotate if a ball is thrown to the outfield.

U1 has 2 options -

1. Go with the overthrow only if there is trouble down the right field line ie: tarp, an occupied bullpen, unseen area from the plate, no fence, or lined dead ball area.

2. Take responsibility for the B/R. I'd be careful rimming this play with a potential throw coming from right field directly to 2nd base. 

Personally as U1 I would get my angle which on this play would be close to the baseline between 1st and 2nd. Once the ball is overthrown I would enter the infield and mirror the B/R. 

Thanks for the feedback.  We did pregame that we only rotate on a batted ball hit to the outfield, but U1 just brain farted on it, which he recognized after the fact.

I agree with you that the best course of action is to enter the infield and mirror the BR.  That was my initial thought when we talked about it in our post game, but wasn't sure if that was right.  The other benefit of doing it that way, especially for umpires that work more 2 man than 3 man is that it is exactly what we would do when working 2 man in the same situation with no runners on.  When we see the overthrow, we would immediately enter the infield and take the BR to second base (and third, but U3 would have BR to third here).  Doing it this way gives us man-to-man coverage on each runner and ensures that an umpire is in the best position to make a call back into first, and at second and third bases.