awarding bases

Question
Clarification please.. I've unpire in past but have been out of the game for a while.. running on first, fy ball to short left field, left fielder makes running catch while the runner is 1/2 way to second base, left filed throw to first in an attempt to double up runner, he over throws the first baseman and the ball goes into the dugout... question: the awarding of two bases is from the time of release of the ball, but is the two bases awarded, 1) first base because the running has to tag and the counts as one of the awarded bases or is the award from the last base occupied (first) bottom line, does is running awarded second (2 bases, first as one and second as the other) or is he awarded third base cause it's from last base occupied?  When I officiated the award was second because he had to re-touch first and that counted as one of the awarded bases and second was the second awarded base.. Thanks for your time, Ron Osborn

Answer
Hi Ron,

The direction of the runner has no bearing on the award.  It is 2 bases from the last base touched at the time of the throw.  In this case the award would be 3rd but the runner must re-touch 1st or be liable to be called out on appeal.

A common error by umpires is if a runner is retreating to a base, that base is "1" and the next base is "2" and that is not correct.

Just to expand on the rule....

In ASA softball RS (POE) 38 says if a runner is returning to 1st but is between 2nd and 3rd when the ball leaves the fielder's hand and the runner was between 2nd and 1st when the ball went out of play, the award is home.

This is consistent with the softball rule that 2 bases are always awarded from the last base touched at the time of the throw.  Since 2nd was the last base touched at the time of the throw in this case, the award is home.

Now if the runner had touched 2nd and was retreating to 1st and was between 2nd and 1st when the ball left the fielder's hand the award would be 3rd because the last base touched was 1st.  

Just as if this was a force play at 2nd, the runner touches 2nd but now the runner is retreating back to 1st, the force is back in effect and they would have to re-touch 2nd because by retreating they legally had not.

OK?

Mark