Game Over

Question
We were in a ASA tourney today.  We were in the bottom of the 7th, we had bases loaded with two outs and the game tied.  The batter hit a base hit to left, the runner on third scored, the home plate umpire yelled "Ball Game"!!! The runner on first diverted his run to second to the middle of the field where both teams emptied their benches to congratulate eachother for the end of the game.  Someone on the losing team decided to run out to left, grab the ball that was the game winning base hit, throw it to second and get the "force" out.  The umps talked and decided the runner to second was out and the game was tied and must go to extra innings.  My question is, does the game end, the ball go "dead" etc when the ump says "ball game"?  I'm not questioning the strategy, but I have to believe everyone stops the flow of play so the play is dead, game over.  What do you think?

Answer
Thanks for the question!

YIKES!  Ball game isn't technically an official umpiring term to use, yet it's used all the time.  One way to look at it is in this instance, I would say that this is actually obstruction on the umpire.  The ball was still in play when the umpire obstructed by prematurely calling "ball game".  Another way is "ball game" signifies that the game is over and the ball is "dead".  

There is absolutely nothing in the book to cover such a situation.  I would have to say if this happened to me, I would go with umpire obstruction.  Had this not been a run to win the game, the runner on second would have safely made it there on the base hit.  Not a good way to end a game, sorry this happened!

I hope this helps answer your question, if not please reply!