Runner Advance on Ground Rule Double
Question
Runner on 1st base. Batter hits a ground-rule double, which is not called until after the runner and batter/runner both score. The batter is sent back to 2nd. The runner who was on 1st is not sent back to 3rd; rather, he is ruled to have scored because he was already past 2nd base when the ball left the field of play for a ground-rule double. Other than "ball hit into the road on a bounce is a double," nothing else was covered in the pre-game meeting about this ground rule.
Q#1 - Should the runner originally on 1st have been allowed to score or sent back to 3rd base?
Q#2 - If the runner originally on 1st should have been sent back to 3rd base, was this misinterpretation of the playing rules that could/should have been protested?
League is ASA coed slow pitch.
Thank you!
Answer
Hi Ken,
Assuming you have NO LOCAL GROUND Rules on this field, it doesn't matter where the runners are, when a fair batted ball goes out of play it is 2 bases from the time of the pitch, not from when it left the field.
So R1 is on 3rd and B2 is on 2nd
Mark
Force removed on runners by putting out B-R
number of players needed to play