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Had this happen at a HS game between two small schools, one where softball was first year program other 2nd year.
R1 at 3B. Batter hits ground ball down 3B line. R1 makes ill advised attempt to advance to home, changes her mind and tries to get back to 3B. F5 fields the ball and eventually tags out R1. The parents of the defense go wild (outs were kinda hard to come by in this game).
Meanwhile the batter-runner has picked up the bat and returned to the batters box as if awaiting the next pitch. (????) Apparently she thought it was a foul ball. More interesting was that this girls coach did not get what was happening, and for that matter it took the defense a few beats to figure it out.
I just stood off in foul ground with my mask off and waited. For a bit everyone just stood there. Then the light bulb went on in the defensive team's head coach who said "Throw the ball to 1B!". Batter-runner retired.
While I agree we can't as umpires tell the team to run to 1B or to throw to 1B at some point if they are really clueless I am going to verbally offer a clue.
In this case I had planned to stand there until someone woke up and play resumed or someone said "what's going on?". If it got to that point I would have said something like, "well, the batter hit a fair ball, and the ball is in play" and then wait some more. If they still don't get it I might say "I'm waiting for the batter-runner to reach first base or be put out".
I'm not telling either team what to do just verbally clarifying my call since obviously they don't get it.
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