How would you rule?
Question
Level of Play: Little League Majors (All-Star Tournament)
The situation: Runners on first and second with two outs.
Batter hits the ball between the shortstop and second base bag. Batted ball hits the runner leaving second going to third. Second base umpire calls the runner out. Shortstop fielded the ball cleanly off the runner's (leaving second) foot and was standing about two to three paces from second base and second baseman was on the bag. Shortstop rolls the ball to the mound since it was the third out and the game was over.
Here where it get's interesting. Either the home plate umpire (or first base umpire) said the pitcher touched the batted ball, thus a the hit ball was a deflection and that the second base umpire's call was incorrect. As far as I know, this was not done at the request of the manager or coach of the team at bat. The second base umpire overruled his own decision.
It was ultimately settled by allowing the runner's on first and second respectively to advance to the next base (second and third) and the hitter was awarded first.
What is the correct call? If you need more information, I'll be happy to provide more information.
Answer
John,
The umpires got the call correct. Seeing as the batter-runner needs to go somewhere (1st base) the other runners get moved to 2nd and 3rd.
The umpires goal was to get the call correct, and I believe they did.
I hope this has helped.
-Martin Hoover
force play/double play
3rd baseman help?