Walked Batter leaves base path and contacts on deck batter
2016/7/15 17:01:46
Question
Is it legal for a batter/runner to leave the base path and/or make contact with a player or coach prior to reaching first base after a base on balls?
I recently witnessed a Florida High School Game where, after a batter was walked, she immediately ran out from the batters box to the on deck circle, grabbed the on-deck batter by the shoulders, had a short face-to-face conversation with the on-deck batter (presumably to discuss game strategy), then ran over to first base.
Answer
Marc,
There is nothing in your description of events that I believe I could call the batter/runner out on. As the umpire I would have some comments to the coach between innings that when a walk is received, the batter/runner is to head directly to first.
The first time it happened if the conversation lasted more than a couple of seconds I would be talking to batter/runner to get them to first to get the game moving. If it happened again the offending team would be very hard pressed to get any walks from me!
Tom
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