[chapmaja]

We had a March in Michigan JV DH the other day. Cold, with a mist starting late in the second game.

This does bring up a couple questions.

One, when do you folks feel it is time to call a game due to darkness? We have an area rule that no pitch will be thrown after sunset on an unlit field. That was 7:54 local time for us. The weather was not real good in South Central Michigan that evening and as a result it was getting darker earlier. At about 7:00 pm we (me as PU, my partner on the bases, and the head coaches) agreed this would be the final inning (3rd). It was about 40 degrees and the wind was picking up and it was starting to mist. Unfortunately, the home team for this game was down big to start their half of the inning. They decided to wake up and actually hit the ball. 40 minutes later the visiting team finally got out #3 to end the game. It was getting real dark by this point.

Several times during the bottom of the inning I asked batters if they were able to see the pitches coming in, and I asked the catcher if she could see ok and they all said yes. Right thing to do or wrong thing to do.

I was also watching the reaction from the defense on hit balls to see if they were having any trouble reacting to hits, and they were not.

Apparently we (the umpires) were the only ones having trouble. We had two situations in that inning that were questionable.

First, a play at the plate on a hit to the right field. I am in position for the play at the play behind and to the left of the right hand batters box. The runner slides as the catcher catches the ball and applies the tag to the first base side of the runner. I see the tag applied prior to the runner touching the plate and I call her out. The first base coach immediately starts yelling that she dropped the ball. When I see the glove come up I see the ball in the glove. The coach asks me to ask my partner if he saw anything different. I agree and go out. Much to my surprise he goes "She dropped it then caught the ball on the bounce." I now have a safe call. The defense did not argue much so they must have known. Was this the proper procedure.

Later in the other half inning we had this play. Runner at 3rd, D3K. Batter runner takes off to first. Catcher throws down and F3 catches the ball, then immediately throws down to first. As she throws, the runner at third breaks home. F3 catches the ball and immediately removes it from the glove as she starts a throwing motion to the plate. The glove (without the ball) touches the batter runner as she goes by. My BU calls her out at first as I get ready for a play at the plate. The throw home is high and over the head of the catcher. I then look up and see the batter runner (who was called out) heading to second. The offensive coaches are screaming that F3 was not touching first base on the catch. From my angle watching her go down, I thought she was touching the base, but she was right in the line where she would be catching a throw from the catcher, so I could not tell if she was or wasn't touching.

The coach comes out and begins stating his case that the runner was a yard towards the plate when she caught the ball. My partner then comes in and tells me, the base is so covered with dirt, I couldn't tell if she was touching the base or not. It looked like she was where the base would be. Oh S$%^. That's the last thing I wanted to hear.

I know the rule is don't guess and out, but what do you do here? My partner already guessed an out and I don't have anything to say he was definitively wrong. We ended up sticking with the call on the field of an out. The coach wasn't happy, but it was the parents who were more upset.

The problem on this play was the people with the best view of the play were the offensive team coaches. We very well could have kicked the call, but we had to go with what we saw.

In one way, the out did help us. The game became a 2 run game when the final out was recorded. Had that out not been called, she would have likely scored later on and the game would have been a 1 run game with 2 outs and I would have had to call it due to darkness. I had already made up my mind when the batter who recorded out #3 came up that she would be the last batter due to darkness.