Last batter in CBO

Question
We have the following rule in our in-town U14 softball league:

MERCY RULE: A team may score no more than 6 runs per inning or go through the CBO once per inning until the 7th inning.

I had a situation during my half of the 5th inning, my 8th and final batter (due to the fact that I only had 8 batters in the lineup) was up with the bases loaded and no outs. She grounded out to first and the runner from 3rd scored. Does the run count?

It's my understanding that the inning is not be over until play is dead. With one out, the play was not dead and in fact the other 2 runners could have kept advancing and hence scored.

I do not believe this is an ASA rule as I could not find anything in the rule book. I would think a ruling could be made in accordance with ASA rules. How would you rule it?


Answer
Hi Ralph,

It's aways tough to comment on local rules

In ASA if we were playing shorthanded where the 9th batter would be out and B8 w/ less than 2 outs does not reach 1st safely but R1 scores, the run would count because we have not yet called B9 out.

With runners on and shorthanded and B9 or B10 the last out of the inning you will very often see runners do everything they can to keep the play alive.

We have no rule about going through the lineup

Mark