I witnessed this in Babe Ruth Tournament Play last week in 15U boys State Games....
No outs , Batter has a 0 - 2 Count, Runners on 3rd & 2nd, R3 steals home on "PITCH" and gets hit by the "PITCH" @ the plate, ball in foul territory at fence afterwards.
Now this what the Umpire Crew did on the field..... PU called "Time, Dead Ball". Run scores and put original R2 on 3rd base. Ball on batter & continued from there with a 1-2 count on batter. Coaches were not happy!!!!
Now I have been Umpiring Babe Ruth & High School for 5 years and this is the first time I have seen this happen, but it did! In my mind at the time I thought quickly as if it were my game as PU and I would have ruled this....
"LIVE BALL", nothing on batter and ALL runners are free to advances as many bases as they want. When ball returns to Pitcher, Batter has a 0 - 2 count & still no outs. Let the play continue and if coach wants to "ASK" afterwards then I would award time to him to ask. I would then explain that it is a live ball because it was a "THROWN BALL" and say nothing else as to not give the Coach any ammunition to fire back at me!
What's your call???
