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Rule 8 Section 5F
Runners are entitled to advance with liability to be put out:
Play: With no outs, R1 on 1B and B2 hits a long fly ball to F8. R1 rounds 2B, sees the ball caught by F8 and begins to return to 1B. The ball is released while R1 is between 2B and 3B. The ball goes out of play while the R1 is between 1B and 2B. What is he correct award for the umpire to apply?
Ruling: Once the ball enters dead ball territory the umpire should first allow the runner to complete their base running responsibilities. The umpire should hesitate to see if the runner is going to retouch 1B. Then the umpire should call dead ball and award two bases from the time of the release of the ball, not the time the ball goes out of play. This means that even though the runner was going back to tag up, the release of the ball happened when the runner was between 2B and 3B. Therefore, the runner would be awarded two (2) bases from the time of the throw. Rule 8 Section 5G
This seems off to me. IMO it should be a 2 base award from the last base safely reached at the time of the release. Since the runner has to go back and tag up, then the last base safely reached was 1B and award should be 3B.
You can award home if they don't go back and tag up, but the defensive should be able to appeal then and get the out. I guess that is the crux, you have to award home because it's not the umpires job to let the defense know that the runner has to tag up to be safe from an appeal. (still stinks)
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