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Oops
HS varsity game (FED Rules), I have the plate.
R1, no outs.
Batter hits a pop fly near dead ball territory (marked by a chalk line). F5 dives for the ball, makes the catch and lands in dead ball territory. F5 was completely airborne when he made the catch. At the time of the catch, neither foot, nor any part of F5's body had yet touched DBT. I ruled a catch and called time. The O coach (he was in the 3B coach's box) immediately gets in my grille arguing no catch because the fielder has to be straddling the line.
Meanwhile, my partner did not realize I had killed the ball. He also thought F5 had not crossed into DBT. R1 had tagged (properly observed by my partner) and was advancing toward 2nd base. F5 threw to 2nd and my partner banged him out. I did not see any of this because I was dealing with the coach, and I knew the ball was dead.
I finally got the coach back in his box and we got back to baseball. A pitch was thrown to the next batter and was fouled off. Now the O coach comes out again and wants to know why his runner was taken off the bases. I called my partner in and after I figured out what had happened, I returned the runner to 2nd base.
Now the D coach comes unglued, arguing that I cannot fix the situation because a pitch had been thrown to the next batter. He protested the game but later withdrew it because his team won.
There were no ejections.
I know the (numerous) mechanics mistakes I made so please spare me the lecture on that.
I have two questions:
1. Would you have handled it differently (assume you made the same mechanics mistakes I did)?
2. What would you have done had the batter doubled instead of fouling the pitch off?
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