[chapmaja]

I had the following in a fall ball scrimmage today, 14U, USSSA rules. All of these are one umpire mechanics.

Situation 1: R1 at third, B2 receives ball 4, and takes off towards first. As she rounds first, the on deck batter comes into pick up the bat and as she turns she manages to hit me with the bat below the belt (obviously unintentional). Apparently the runner committed a LBR violation after rounding the base and then went to 2nd. Unfortunately at that point I was on all fours from being hit. Coach comes out asking me if I am going to call out the runner. How do you respond to this (BTW he asks this while I am still down from being cup checked, hard with a bat.)


Situation 2: The field does not have a running lane marked. Later in the first game of the DH I have a batter hit a ball that goes about 2 feet in front of the plate. The catcher goes out and fields the ball and throws to first base. The problem is the runner is running about 2 feet inside fair territory about 20 feet from fist based then the throw hits her in the middle of the back. I call interference, the batter is out and R1 goes back to 3rd base. The coach comes over and wants an explanation. How do you explain to this rule to the coach? I told him my understanding of the rule, which he did not agree with, but accepted. (He then later came over and told me I was correct on the call and he was unaware of that rule).

Situation 3: Second game of the DH. R1 at third, R2 at second, B4 hits a slow roller down basically on the third base line. I come out from behind the plate and see a horror story. R1 is about 15 feet off 3rd base. I have to get to the line to see if the ball is fair or foul. F5 picks the ball up as F6 goes over to cover third. Sure enough F5 wheels and throws back to F6 as R1 is diving back. I am at the plate, just outside the foul line and all I see is A&E as F6 catches the ball and drops to apply the tag. I call the runner safe, which immediately has the fans jumping up and down. The defensive fans are located in the third base bleachers and have a great view of the play. The DC comes out and asks how I could call her safe. The only thing I could say is that I was in a position that did not allow me to see the play at third. This is a drawback of a one umpire system. What would you have told the coach in this situation?

Also from the game was the pitcher who completely missed the sign and pitched a ball off my elbow when the catcher was set up a foot outside. The ball glanced off the catchers glove as she tried coming back and caught my elbow square. I had a golf ball sized bump for about 30 minutes. It's still really swollen, but not painful.

I had an over the fence HR, which the defensive fans swore was foul. One fan even yelled that it had to be foul because the boy picked it up in foul territory when he went to get it. (It would about 10 feet inside the foul pole).