Protesting an umpires call

Question
This situation occurred during a slow pitch softball game.  Obviously before the game both teams and the umpire go over all the home teams ground rules.  In the bottom of the forth the home team is down by two with a man on first and second.  A ball gets hit for a single to center field and the man on second scores.  the man on first attempts to go to third and the throw from the outfield is a little off an the ball goes out of play.  The guy who ran to third runs home and scores.  The guy who was on first stops at second and the batter stops at first.  The umpire never calls the ball dead.

I ask the umpire how a ball three feet on the other side of out of play is not dead and how the runners do not advance.  The umpires answer was "I forgot what the ground rules were".  

the question is, on a normal situation this would be a judgement call (ie: if the ump. would have said the ball was not out).  But with his comment does this play merit a protest?  

By the way we ended up losing by one!

Answer
Hi Dan,

You don't give me a whole lot of info on the field.

If you're playing on non-enclosed fields and/or you have local ground rules specific to that field it can be a little tough on a umpire who's not used to them or doesn't do them a lot.

If you had the discussion w/ the umpire before the next pitch and they agreed the ball was out of play, we simply put the runners where they would have been.  After a pitch nothing can be done.

Out of play in most cases is not a tough call because either a ball is or it isn't.  On unique fields I can see where it might be a judgment call.

If you protested the call right away, it's up to your LD to see what if anything they want to do about it.  You cannot protest now.

mark