Third base line tag

Question
I am an 8 and under softball coach and had a strange situation today. we were on offense with a runner on second and third, my batter hits the ball to the pitcher, the third base runner breaks for home, the pitcher picks up the ball with her hand and tags the runner with her glove, the ball is clearly on the other side of her body as she stretches to tag my runner, my runner is approx. 2 to 3 feet off the the third base chalk line in foul territory and touches home plate easily after trying dodge the false tag. he calls the girl out not paying attention to the ball not in the glove. I ask him why he called her out there was no tag when he realized it was not a clean tag his exact response was she ran out of the base line anyway. how wide is the base path and how far does a runner get to avoid a tag?  should my 8 and under runner just run into the defensive player. it seems to me she get should enough room to not change direction but to avoid a tag. I have seen biiger girls slide so far outside the baseline and reach in a tag to the base as there hand goes by to avoid blocked plates by catchers. we won the game but I would just like some clarification on this situation. Thanks!  

Answer
Hi Bob,

Well as you stated we don't have a legal tag as the offensive player must be tagged with the ball while held securely in either the glove or the hand.

Now when we have a situation where we have a runner and a defensive player attempting to tag the runner, a direct line between the base and the runner's position is now established and it is called the "base path"  The runner is allowed 3' on either side of the base path to avoid the tag.  If they move more than 3' from this base path trying to avoid the tag, they would be out.

Please note the "base path" has nothing to do with the "base line".  A base line is an imaginary line directly between the bases and has nothing to do with this situation.

You cannot have a runner remain upright and crash into a defensive player who has the ball.  The runner would be out and possibly ejected.

Mark