Scoring

Question
In U14 girls fastpitch we had a flyball to RF.  Our F9 got a bad jump (or no jump)and the ball dropped in.  In practice the player makes this play almost every time but in the game was either daydreaming or was nervous.  There was no touch of the ball, it just dropped in because she just didn't move soon enough.  

In scoring the game I gave a base hit.  Coach and many of the parents thought it was an error.  I disagreed saying I'm not giving an error for a bad jump on the ball.  

In reading many of your previous responses to people regarding "ordinary effort" or "mental error" - where would like this fall?  At these younger ages I tend to lean towards giving the benefit of the doubt to the batter but at what point would this be an error to F9?  Would it be only if she was actually got
under the ball and then missed it?

Answer
Sounds like mental error to me.  I would score it a hit.  As far as the benefit of the doubt going to the hitter at this age.  The benefit of the doubt goes to the hitter at all ages.  Basically, if you can't quite figure which way to go, you have a hit!

A lot of coaches want mental mistakes, day dreaming or what ever you call it to be recorded as errors, they are not errors.

I would have given F9 an error if she had a play on the ball and did not make it.  I would base this on the jump she had on the ball not the jump everybody thinks she should have had.

Based on the information you gave me you scored it correctly.

Tom