Out of Play Situations

Question
I was in a high school game and a ruling was made on the field which I am not sure was correct or not.

A batter hit a double and as he was rounding 2nd, the throw from the outfield went into the dugout. The runner was allowed to score from second by the umpire. Is that right?

On another play, with a runner on first, a bunt was laid down, the catcher over threw the 1B and the ball then went out of play. The runner from 1B was rounding second when the ball went OB. The runner was only allowed to go to 3rd and not score. Seems confusing to me.

Answer
Lawrence,

I apologize for the delay in answering -- baseball season is beginning to get busy!

For both situations, I am referring to the NFHS "Baserunning Awards Table" found in the 2009 Baseball Rules Book (page 53).

For the first situation, the award falls under "...any throw by an outfielder and ball goes out of play..." ("TWO BASES", #6). Each runner is awarded two bases from the last base touched at the time of the throw. In your example, if the batter-runner had already touched 2B when the OF threw the ball, then he would be awarded home. If he hadn't touched 2B yet, he would only be awarded 3B.

In the second situation, the award falls under "First throw by an infielder and ball goes out of play..." ("TWO BASES", #5). Each runner is awarded two bases from the base occupied at the time of the pitch. The batter-runner would be awarded 2B, and a runner that was originally on 1B would be awarded 3B.

The difference in awards is based on the time of the THROW or the time of the PITCH. The umpires use PITCH when it's the first play by an infielder, and use THROW when it's any play by an infielder after the initial play or any throw from an outfielder.