In two days the WIAA softball season officially begins. The weather appears to be that which could produce many teams practicing outside and on their infields. In Poynette that will be the case.
In the last bulletin I listed four situations where two runners occupy the same base. Here they are again with the answers in italics after each scenario.
Tonight’s situation deals with two runners occupying the same base. The shortstop is trying to tag out the lead runner between second and third, a trail runner right behind advances to second base. The lead runner escapes the shortstop’s attempt at the putout and makes it back to second base untouched. When she arrives the trail runner is occupying second base. The shortstop tags the lead runner who is standing atop second when both runners occupy it. When the tag is applied the trail runner heads back to first base and another rundown occurs. What would be the correct call on that tag at second base?
As a coach what do you instruct your runners to do in this situation? What do you do to instruct your fielders to do?
If both are on the base, only the trail runner when tagged is out. If only one is on the base when when tagged neither is out.
Here is another one. The bases are loaded. The runner at first legally swipes second base but the runner at second does not advance. The pitcher receives the ball in the circle from the catcher and makes no play on any runner. Can both runners remain aboard second base? What must the umpire do in this situation?
The umpire must give some time for a play to be made then declare the ball dead and call the trail runner, the one who was at first out.
Yet another one. With a runner at first the batter hits a bouncer to the first sacker who then (1) steps on first base then tags the runner who never left the base or (2) tags the lead runner who is standing atop first base then steps on first base. What’s the correct ruling in these two scenarios?
In situation 1 the lead runner is not out because the force was removed when the batter was retired. In 2 both the runner and the batter are out. You can find this one in Rule 2-24.
And finally a fourth one. With a lead runner at second base and the trail runner at first the batter hits a deep flyball over the centerfielder’s head. The runner at first advances to third base as the lead runner get caught in a rundown between third and home. The lead runner gets back to third base safely but gets obstructed on her way to the bag. Both runners are now standing atop third base. The catcher tags the trail runner. What’s the correct call in this mess?
When the obstruction occurred the umpire should loudly call out “obstruction” and give a delayed dead ball signal. The runner that was obstructed would not be in jeopardy. When the lead runner returned the base safely the obstruction is ignored as that base is the one she would have reached had there been no obstruction. The lead runner is the one entitled to the base so the trail runner there would be called out on the tag. (You can see this in Rule 2-36 and 8-37).
After posting the situations the other night I received several emails from some readers with some interesting stories. One longtime coach who is one of my heroes told two of them from his early days of coaching at the D-1 level.
Thisplay happened to me years ago in my second or third year of coaching. With two players on the same base my player tagged the trail runner ... then the lead baserunner left base, went into dugout... the other team’s coach yelled at her to go home...she went in one end of the dugout, out the other and scored!! The umpire allowed this!! Funny story now, but not so funny then!!
Here’s another one..again at the same Division 1` school I was coaching at then. I convinced a girl who had never played softball before to come out. I'd had her in PE class and saw how fast she was and I was delighted she came out. Her first time on base she stole 2d...from 3rd I said "Stephanie..did I tell you to steal?" Response.."NO". I lowered my head into a smile....looked up and she was walking back to 1st...pitcher ran over and tagged her out!
I’m sure we can all recall stories similar to these, especially those of us who have been coaching since the pre-travel ball days.
In the first year I coached I installed a “take sign.” In the first girls’ fastpitch game I ever coached I flashed the take sign to a batter. She took as hard a cut as I had ever seen her take and missed. I gave her the take sign again and again she took a tremendous cut and struck out. I asked her if she knew what the take sign meant and she answered, “I did, I took two hard swings.” I learned quickly to explain everything in extreme detail. It’s the little things that cause big problems.
Have a great day as you prepare for Day #1 of the 41st year of WIAA fastpitch softball. We’ve gone from a one-class, all encompassing tournament for the first three years to Class A and Class B in 1979 and 1980. In 1981 we went to three classes and changed the terminology from classes to divisions was made in the 1991 season. In 2002 due to the inclusion of the former WISAA schools we moved to four divisions. This will be the final season with four divisions as we will move to five divisions of play in 2017.
Keep it Rising!
Bob
