[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by Blue37

HS varsity between district rivals with no history of bad blood. I'm on the bases, top of 1st, runners on 1st and 2nd, two out, ground ball to third, easy throw to 1st for the third out. Suddenly there was contact between the runner and 1st baseman. I thought the 1st baseman had come off of the base far enough for there to have been no contact, but could not tell for sure. I immediately looked at my partner to see if he had anything, but he was looking at R2's touch of 3rd (don't digress into discussing that aspect).

Right. We don't digress into discussing things that are correct.

There were some hard looks, but no words, and I moved to my position in short right field.

A quiet word with both players here could have helped -- it's tough to know for sure when it happens what to do.

Top of 3rd, same situation. Two on, two out, same batter at the plate. The pitcher came set, looked at R2, winked at the SS, and plunked the batter in the back. The batter made no reaction other than trotting to 1st.

Between innings, due to my concern that things might escalate, I went in and talked to my partner about the contact in the 1st innning and the wink to the SS. He had indeed missed the contact, and shared my concern about mantaining control of the game.

The pitcher was the first batter in the bottom of the 3rd, and he was hit with the 1st pitch. Since I was in A, I could not tell if it was intentional or one that got away. I looked to my partner to see if he was going to issue any warnings, but he did not. The pitcher went to first without any reaction. The game went seven innings without any further incidents.

After the game, I asked my partner about not warning the visiting pitcher when he hit the home pitcher in the bottom of the 3rd. He said he did. He told the catcher to go out and tell the pitcher that if he hit another batter, he would be ejected. He also told the home catcher the same thing in the top of the 4th.

Was this handled correctly?

Yes, imo

As the base ump, can I issue warnings? If yes, should I have issed a warning in the top of the 3rd? If no, should I have immediately gone in and told my partner about the wink so he could decide on whether to issue a warning?

This type of warning is best left to the plate umpire.