Hidden ball trick (it finally worked)

[Jay R]

In the 35 years I have been involved in baseball, I had never seen the hidden ball trick work, until last night.

Junior baseball (under 21), I was the plate umpire and my partner thankfully was on top of the play. R3 was in a rundown between 3rd and home and was tagged out by the catcher. R2 made it to 3rd base during the rundown. After the out, the catcher flipped the ball to the F5 instead of F1 and no one on the offense noticed it. As the pitcher was walking around the mound, R3 (formally R2) left 3B and was tagged out by F5. My partner was on top of it and called him out. The manager argued a bit; that time was called (it was not) and that the pitcher had stepped on the slab (he had not).

That was the only highlight of the defensive team last night as they lost 10-0 with the oppsing pitcher tossing a five inning no-hitter.