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Old Thu Sep 05, 2002, 11:26pm
Tap Tap is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 96
We've got a church league tournament (ASA adult SP), the lights set to automatically go out at 10:20 pm, the light timer locked with a combination lock and only a guy on vacation to Europe knows the combination. We had 3 games tonight, though between games 1 and 2 we played the 8th inning of another game from the night before that was tied with one out and one on in the top of the 8th when the lights went out. Luckily, that game ends in just one inning (fun for players to drive to game, warm up, and play only 1 inning). So we've finished game 1, the 1 inning completion, game 2, and then we get to game 3. Sure enough, it's a 10 run game with the vistors winning and about 10:00 pm, and they score another 10 in the top of the 7th. In the bottom of the inning, which started at about 10:15 pm, the home team then frantically rushes to try to get some runs, and -- with 2 outs -- the lights go out precisely at 10:20. They're down about 17 runs still. The league commissioner had left the field earier in the evening, though there was someone purportedly involved in running the league (also happened to be the visitors' catcher) who said he will e-mail everyone.

My understanding is that this would be a game called for darkness and the score would revert back to how it was after 6 innings, which of course is regulation (5 innings or more in ASA). Visitors win. I didn't know the specific rule number at the time, but it seems to be Rule 5-3-C. I stated that the ballgame was over, but it certainly was not as orderly and clear of a situation as it should have been, especially since everyone was scurrying to find their belongings and cars. We should have explained what would the ruling would be if the lights went out, but we thought we would be able to get the game in.
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