[wadep1965]

Fellow umps! I hope this play hasn't made the rounds on this forum, but here goes. I apologize if it's a duplication, but would appreciate the ruling.

Play: (Federation or Pro): The home team is trailing 2-0 going into the bottom of the last inning. Making the story shorter, the bases become loaded and there are now two outs. Before the next batter can come to the plate, the 1st base coach asks for time to conference with his runners, and is granted such by the UIC.

After a minute or so, the huddle of three baserunners and one coach breaks, and all is seemingly ready to go. The UIC puts the ball into play, and restores live action. During the wind-up, and before the pitcher actually releases the ball, the VISITING coach comes running out of the dugout screaming "TIME!" This, of course, causes his pitcher to freeze in mid-throw. The UIC calls "Balk" and grants the runners one base each. He then grants the coach his time-out.

The coach comes to the UIC, not to argue the balk, but to point out that during the conference at first base, the home team had switched the runners who were at 1st and 2nd. It seems that the runner on 1st was much faster than the one on 2nd (the tying run) and so the coach swapped them coming out of the conference.

How do you rule?