Here is the NCAA Approved Ruling on a similar situation that Richard mentioned above. I found it doing a Google search (not doing a cut/paste from the NCAA Central Hub), but the latest version is verbatim except for the rule reference of 12.22.5.5:
Quote:
Bottom of the seventh inning of a tied game with no one on base and no one out. The batter hits an out-of-the–park home run but misses home plate. She accepts her teammate’s congratulations at the plate and then creates the line to shake hands with her opponents without ever leaving the field. As the defensive players begin walking in to the infield to shake hands, the defensive coach tells the first baseman to tell her teammates to stay on the field and get a ball from the umpire. Hearing this, the offensive coach knows they are going to appeal a missed base so she has her player run the bases in reverse order and then the proper order which she does before the defense was able to make the dead ball appeal. Is there anything the defense can do to appeal without tipping off the offense?
RULING: By rule, a runner may not return to touch a missed base if she has touched the final base of her award (see Rule 12.22.5.5) so the only base she can return to on an out-of-the-park home run is home plate. In this case, the offensive head coach is obviously unaware of the rule and unsure of which base was missed so the player is directed to touch all bases in reverse order and then the proper order.
At the moment the runner touches home plate as the beginning of her run to touch the bases in reverse order, the umpire could declare her safe and prevent the rest of her run around the bases. But if that does not happen and the runner proceeds, there is no penalty.
By rule, with the ball out of play, the defense cannot appeal a missed base until the ball is put back in play, the defense is in position and the next batter summoned to the batter’s box. But since this was a game ending play, the reality is the runner will always be able to return to touch home plate before the defense can properly appeal.
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As I read that:
1. The defense cannot legally perform a dead-ball appeal until the "ball is put back in play", so in this play, the dead ball appeal was prematurely allowed since the next batter wasn't summoned to the batter's box.
2. The runner is allowed to return and touch home, even after she sets up the conga line to do the post-game ritual. If that's the case in the AR, then I believe this particular runner can also return to touch home until the point where she enters the dugout and gives up her ability to return onto the field to fix her mistake.
So I think the home run should have stood in this play. There was some discussion that a Bama coach or one of her teammates pushed the runner back to go touch the plate, which is another story. Absent that, however, I don't see why the runner should be disallowed to touch home if she remains on the field.