Protest on a blown call by blue ?

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Yesterday was a rather interesting day . We had not one Blue, but two Blue , who were oblivious to the the rules of softball. At Chillicothe Oh during a tightly contested 2-1 game in which we ( Notre Dame) were at bat during the 4 or 5th inning . Count was 2-1 on one of our power hitters . The pitcher windmills and accidently loses her grip on the ball and squirts out of her hand rolling backwards towards 2b. Blue doesnt make a sound , doesnt say " Ball " " Illegal " --just nothing. SS retrieves ball and tosses it back to the circle . I'm 1b coach and ask ( tell ?? ) blue thats a BALL , count now 3-1 correct ? and Blue says no " that wasnt a pitch the ball didnt come forward " and needless to say I wanted to go ballistic but stayed calm as possible and ask if home blue would conference with the Field guy to get the call corrected .
So they conference and announce " no pitch " count 2-1 ! I'm boiling mad but dont usually raise 9 kinds of hades with blue because its usually fruitless -- But I call request time and jog over to our head coach and ask him to approach home blue about getting the rule book out and getting the call correct OR consider filing a protest . So our HC goes to blue and blue says " Guys thats my call , the count is 2-1 and we NOT getting any rule book out " .
I know the guys both blew the call , would you as a coach have protested the game at this point ? I know its just over a ball/strike ruling but I'd rather have my HR hitter getting a 3-1 pitch as a lead off to the inning than a 2-1 pitch , she could walk setting up a scoring inning. Thoughts and opinions ?
The game was very poorly officiated to say the least .

 

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Rule 6 Section 11 address's this situation .

 

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I'm sure if you had a runner on 3rd and she scored on this they would have said she would have to go back to third too. Over the years especially coaching HS I have had many an umpire get rules wrong. I call it selective enforcement of the rules and with some there is no accountability to get them corrected. I usually ask them after the game to please review the rules so they can get the call right the next time. I had one umpire officiate another game of mine after making an incorrect call in a previous game actually tell me I was correct after he looked it up. Hopefully this umpire does try to find out what the correct call is.

 

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Dan ... I understand your frustration and am pretty sure you are right, but to answer your question, I would not protest a game over this kind of officiating error. Before I'd protest a game, it would pretty much have to be over something that definitely cost me runs ... i.e., me scoring less or the other team scoring more ... and not that the ball-strike count would be different. I guess one other possibility would be if they didn't allow me a substitution that I wanted to do, or allowed the other team an illegal substitution. Pretty much notifying the umpires that you are filing a protest there will force them to get out the rule book, or risk being reprimanded later when they are proven wrong. I think you did everything you should given this particular situation.

 

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I'm sure if you had a runner on 3rd and she scored on this they would have said she would have to go back to third too.

No she wouldn't. It's a ball added to the count and the ball is live until returned to the circle. Any runners may advance with the liability of being put out.

To address the initial question, you have to ask yourself what is in the best interests of your girls for the remainder of the game. Proving yourself correct about whether a count should be 3-1 or 2-1 is not worth it. Now, if bases are loaded and it's the bottom of the 7th with bases loaded, tie game and a full count then you definitely pull out the rule book. Take care of this situation by giving an appropriate rating of the crew the following day.

 

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Yeah I thought it would be a little petty to protest a ruling like that .. BUT part of my job is to fight legally ( and with class) to put my kids in the best place to win a game . and legally we got the hose job on that one. You guys know what happens to a lead off walk and the offensive possibilities it brings . In a 2-1 game in the 5th inning.

 

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MD-
This happened last night. Ball flew out of her hand before she could initiate her pitch. She laughed, everyone said "good eye" to the batter, a "ball" was added to the count, but the runners did not advance. offensive head coach did not question the ruling.
I have been trying to find a PDF rulebook, and for some reason can't find one. You would think that the ASA's cavernous website would have it somewhere.

 

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You're right -

.. BUT part of my job is to fight legally ( and with class) to put my kids in the best place to win a game...

But, let's say you force the issue. You prove you're right and he's wrong. Then what? All of a sudden your pitcher's strike zone is the size of a thimble and the opposing team's is a mile wide. That doesn't help your girls. There are better ways of handling it.

 

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oh , it already was .. part two of my question is suppose we file the protest at time of the improper ruling , the game ends 2-1 -- the ruling is made by someone above the two homers we had calling the game and we win the protest -- would the loss count against our W-L record ?

 

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I'm not aware of any provisions for a protest under NFHS in Ohio high school .

 

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Rule 6 Section 11 address's this situation .

That's the ASA rule. NFHS rule is 6-2-6 (see backstop09's post below).

Maybe they're thinking of the slowpitch rule - 6-4-9 (as of 2011) is different.

ART. 9 . . . No pitch shall be declared when:
a. the pitcher pitches during the suspension of play.
b. the runner is called out for leaving the base too soon.
c. the pitcher attempts a quick return of the ball before the batter is in his or her position or is off balance as a result of the previous pitch.
d. the ball slips from the pitcher’s hand during the windup or during the backswing.
e. the pitcher pitches before the base runner has retouched the base after a foul ball has been declared and ball is dead.
PENALTY: (Art. 9) The ball is dead and all subsequent action on that pitch is canceled.

 

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From the 2014 book - Rule 6, Section 2, Article 6: When the ball slips from the pitcher's hand during the backswing or forward motion, it is a pitch. EFFECT - a ball is awarded to the batter and the ball remains in play and runners may advance with liability to be put out.

 

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Protests are not allowed in Ohio high school softball.

Sometimes I wish they were. Then maybe some of the guys that don't know simple rules like this would learn a thing or two. You can only hope that these officials look this one up after the game, so that the next time it happens they'll get it right.

 

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There are no protests in Ohio HS softball just as there are no forfeits.

Your only retribution is when you go home and rate the officials you can put a note in there as to the blown ruling and you can give the ump a lower rating. Many coaches fail to do this and thus we get stuck with these unqualified umps doing tournament games instead of the ones who deserve to do the tournament games.

 

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Our umpire association has been harping on us this year to always bring a rule book with us on the field precisely because there are no protests available in order to make sure we get it right. Thought that direction came from the state level, but maybe it hasn't trickled down everywhere. Speaking of HS level. I personally wouldn't take issue with being asked to look up a rule in a civil and professional manner, especially if I turned out to be wrong as these guys were. Of course YMMV!

 

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Our umpire association has been harping on us this year to always bring a rule book with us on the field precisely because there are no protests available in order to make sure we get it right. Thought that direction came from the state level, but maybe it hasn't trickled down everywhere.

This same thing was told to our group by Jerry Fick, the state director of umpire development for the OHSAA.