[MNBlue]

Tuesday, I had this situation:

Top of 7th, 2 outs, bases empty, visitors ahead 6-2. Catcher batting, hits a gapper to right center. She pulls into second - the ball comes into F4, who starts walking the ball in. The runner, anticipating a courtesy runner, steps off second and takes a couple of steps toward her bench. F4 sees the runner off the base, tags her, and I ring her up. Visiting coach goes ballistic, "... you knew we were going to put in a courtesy runner." I reply, "Coach, if instead of tagging your runner out, suppose F4 would have thrown the ball to F1 wildly and it went out of play. Would you want your runner to score?" Of course she says yes. I tell her "You can't have it both ways."

You never know what is going to happen until the ball gets in the circle and it isn't our job to stop play to make it 'safe' for either team. Calling time may take an advantage away from one team that deserved it because the other team wasn't doing their job.