[greymule]

he could have considered it as an accidental appeal

There is no such thing as an accidental appeal, and there never was. There used to be an "accidental force play" in Fed, but I think they did away with it. (And that was Fed baseball; I'm not aware that Fed ever allowed an accidental force play in softball).

The fielder must appeal to the umpire. Merely touching the base is not enough.
(However, when an appeal is obvious, such as when the runner is far off the base when a fly ball is caught, a spoken appeal is not necessary.)

canump, it's a good idea, when offering a play, to cite the code being used.