Bretman Question-dig deep into the book

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This came up on another forum and no one could come up with a 100% answer yet so I thought I would ask our board of experts. High School rules.

Scenario: Runners on 2nd base and 1st base, 1 out. Batter hits a fly ball to deep Centerfield. The CF, standing at the fence leaps, catches the ball and then falls over the fence. For the sake of argument, it was determined that the CF did not intentionally take the ball out of play.

Everyone should agree that the batter is out, "Dead Ball" is declared, and the runners are awarded 1 base.

Here is the question. If a runner was off of the base when the CF touched the ball and then the ball went out of play and became a "dead ball", does the runner have to go back and tag-up before proceeding to her awarded base?

 

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This came up on another forum and no one could come up with a 100% answer yet so I thought I would ask our board of experts. High School rules.

Scenario: Runners on 2nd base and 1st base, 1 out. Batter hits a fly ball to deep Centerfield. The CF, standing at the fence leaps, catches the ball and then falls over the fence. For the sake of argument, it was determined that the CF did not intentionally take the ball out of play.

Everyone should agree that the batter is out, "Dead Ball" is declared, and the runners are awarded 1 base.

Here is the question. If a runner was off of the base when the CF touched the ball and then the ball went out of play and became a "dead ball", does the runner have to go back and tag-up before proceeding to her awarded base?

"Dig deep into the book", ye of little faith, he is going to know it off the top of his head. :lmao:

 

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I hope so. I looked and look and couldn't find a clear cut answer.

For all of the grief that umpires get, I got to hand it to them to come up with the right answer in the middle of the game. There is a lot of stuff to remember.

 

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Yes, that runner will need to tag-up before completing her base award!

Actually, it would probably take me longer to dig through the rule book and find the actual rules that cover this. This is my "off the top of my head" answer, and it is a basic premise that umpires should be familiar with.

Runners can go back and retouch a base left too soon during a dead ball and should be given the opportunity to do that before completing the base award. If the runner doesn't tag up, and just heads for the next base, she would be subject to appeal for leaving early.

She's not out for leaving early until appealed, so if she doesn't tag up and the defense doesn't appeal it, she would stay at her advanced base without penalty.

(I can look up the rules references later, just in case somebody wants "proof".)

 

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Okay...had a chance to do a little digging...

While there are various rules about touching bases in a legal order, leaving bases early and appeal plays, this one rule pretty much sums it up:

(ASA) 8-3-H: Bases left too soon on a caught fly ball must be retouched prior to advancing to awarded bases.

The NFHS/high school rule is the same. See rule 8-3-10.

 

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Thanks. Uber was right, you are the man!!!!