[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by Tru_in_Blu

As a noobie a few years ago, I was working 2-man women's SP. With a runner on 1B I was shading 2B. Batter hit a liner up the middle which F8 came in on quickly and made a throw to 2B for the force.

I couldn't get inside quick enough without impeding the progress of F4 or the runner from 1B, so I sorta just trailed her into 2B. F4 took the throw from F8 while reaching to the SS side of the base. The throw was there 3 steps before the runner, who I called out.

In between innings, my PU came out to whisper to me and asked if I needed glasses. Shocked, I asked why. "That last play, the second baseman was off the base by 3 feet." So I didn't feel too good about that. But I wondered why the runner going to second didn't complain or ask me to check with PU. I was still lamenting the bad call after the game, but my mentor just chalked it up to "that's softball - don't worry about it".

So I didn't get thrown under the bus, just mentally crawled under it myself. So now I try a little harder to anticipate such a play. It is a bit harder on some of those, especially in the SP game where the infielders often play short fielder, and I need to be behind them. Even worse for the men than women.

Ted

Without going too far down this rabbit hole, why let them push you that far into the outfield? It is acceptable to draw a line between, say, F3 and F4 and stay behind that line. Or in your case, maybe F4 and F6. If F4 is standing 20' in the outfield, you are allowed to adjust.