[DTQ_Blue]

I did a very good game 2 nights ago as BU. I noticed that home team base runners would all come off the base on the pitch and begin to return to their base just as F2 was in the act of throwing back to F1. Then finally, a runner at 2B did this, but after 1 step toward the base (by which time the pitcher had the ball in the circle) the runner does a quick 180 pivot and heads toward 3B (she was out F4 to F5, close play, throw right on the money).

The play looked very different from what I was used to seeing so as I later thought it over here is what I came up with.

Most of the time the runner does not begin to retreat to the base until F1 has the ball in the circle. In such cases, the runner has used their 1 permitted stop and cannot reverse and attempt to advance.

By doing it the way the team in the example did it, the runners first stop and retreat does not count for purposes of the LBR because the retreat began before F1 had the ball. It was legal for the runner to do the 180 turn and attempt to advance because the stop/turn was the first one for LBR purposes.

This has the potential to catch the defense off guard because runners hardly ever reverse and attempt to advance once the retreat starts. If the runner had gotten a little bigger of an initial lead or the throw was slightly off, she makes 3rd.

As BU I need to be alert for this trick.