Infield Fly Complications

[beachump]

R1 and R2, 1 out. Batter hits a pop-up and infield fly is called. The ball falls to the ground. Fielder throws to first to get the runner going back. 1B catches the ball then steps off the bag. The plate umpire wrongly calls R1 out. First baseman, thinking the inning is over, rolls the ball toward the mound and defense starts running off the field. In the meantime, R2 had broken for third during the throw. The umpires get together and place R1 back o0n first and R2 at second. I have someone t3elling me you can't take a base he would've made away from the runner and R2 should be at third because "there's no way the defense could have gotten him". My argument is you can only give the runner the last legally obtained base because the defense stopped playing due to your error. Who is right?

[Richvee]

Sounds like R1 and R2 would be correct. The defense stopped playing when the umpire wrongly called the third out. It is umpire judgement where to place runners. So there's really no wrong or right rulebook answer.  Umpires can award or return runners on bases to nullify their error, but the placement should be conservative. Unless R2 was basically at third by the time F3 caught the throw, I'm good with R1 R2. 

[noumpere]

1 hour ago, beachump said:

 I have someone t3elling me you can't take a base he would've made away from the runner and R2 should be at third because "there's no way the defense could have gotten him". My argument is you can only give the runner the last legally obtained base because the defense stopped playing due to your error. Who is right?

The former is "more correct" than the latter.

 

Place the runners where they would have been if the umpire didn't mistakenly call the out at first.  Assuming the statement, "there's no way the defense could have gotten him," is correct, that's R1 and R3.  But, if R2 headed for third only after F3 rolled the ball to the mound (or something like that), then R1 and R2 is correct.

[The Man in Blue]

Maybe I'm missing something.

Why is PU calling R1 out?

[beachump]

Apparently it was an umpire in training and he for some reason thought it was an appeal for leaving early. Apparently he was treating the infield fly ruling as a caught ball even though it dropped. And the field umpire was a coach pulled from the stands.

[Velho]

52 minutes ago, beachump said:

Apparently it was an umpire in training and he for some reason thought it was an appeal for leaving early. Apparently he was treating the infield fly ruling as a caught ball even though it dropped. And the field umpire was a coach pulled from the stands.

So a rec youth game on a day that ends in -y 🤣