By-the-book, I have to go with an out here.
Just because the player was confused, assuming that a clear and accurate "safe" call was made in the first place, that doesn't protect the runner from her own stupidity. If the "safe" call was clear and immediate, there is no basis for an umpire to return the runner just because she was confused.
About the only way I could imagine not calling that runner out would be under one of two different circumstances:
- If these were very young kids in a low-level recreational league and the runner was genuinely confused, I might cut her some slack, call time and place her back on the bag. That, of course, is not a by-the-book ruling, but sometimes with young, inexperienced players it can be acceptable to make concessions to the player's inexperience.
Nor is that the case here- 18U and 23U players should know better!
- If for some reason the base umpire's signal and call of "safe" was so weak, or he used non-standard signals, or it was very delayed, sufficiently so that there would be a reasonable assumption that the player might be confused, the plate umpire could step in and kill the play, then place the runner back on the base.
Anytime an umpire's call is delayed to the point that it puts a player in jeopardy, the plate umpire has the right to fix the situation. Lot's of "ifs" and "maybes" to get to that point, but is is a possibility.
