In a girls 12U fastpitch game I was at tonight, a coach instructed his pitcher to call time-out after every passed ball/wild pitch. He told her to call for time-out as soon as she received the ball from the catcher - while pitcher was still in area of home-plate, before she returned to the circle. He was, of course, trying to prevent the runner on 3rd from stealing home while the pitcher walked back to circle. My question is: isn't the ball still in play until the pitcher has it in the circle? I don't know why the umpire allowed this...except that the "know-it-all coach" had a REALLY big mouth. (He convinced the umpire that a pitched ball that hit a batter was just "dead", and the batter couldn't be awarded first base because it hit the ground first - sounds like a slow pitch guy???) Anyway, his team didn't win, but what a marathon! 27-20 in 2hrs/40min.
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