[greymule]

Baseball and softball are simply not timable games, so whenever close games and time limits coincide, trouble is sure to follow.

There's no absolute answer as to how to handle it. The defense purposely messes while the offense tries to make outs. If they're slick about it, it's tougher to assert that they're doing it on purpose. Pitcher tries to prolong the inning by throwing a little too far inside. Batter swings anyway and grounds to F5. F5 fields the ball but throws it a little short of F3, who swipes at the ball but misses it. Oops, now we gotta chase the ball down the line.

Let's face it, either defense or offense can prolong the game significantly without being obvious, and there's not much we as umpires can do about it.

During the ground rules before games with short time limits (girls' fast-pitch bracket play sometimes has an 80-minute deadline), I usually warn the coaches that I will simply add time to the clock if there's any stalling. Of course, darkness is another story.