Catcher's Balk

[andrewm]

Ok Coach, can you help me a little further? This was our 3rd of three pool games in our 12AA USSSA State Tournament. We ended up winning the game 6-3, but (without looking back at my scorebook) I believe this runner ended up scoring after the balk call. In this tournament only the top eight seeds (of 29 teams total) advanced to bracket play. We were 2-1 with a total of 14 runs allowed, which put us 11th seed.

For arguements sake, let's say that runner would've been the 3rd out and two other runs ended up scoring after that incorrect call. If I protest, does the game halt until the protest is settled? I've never seen an official protest, but I doubt it. Ok, so the game continues under protest. Normally, you protest a call, but if you win, so what? But in this case, those three runs could've been the difference between an 8 or 11 seed. Now what? Even if the protest is upheld, those runs can't be erased, can they? I doubt we'd even be given the option to play over since we won.

[BigUmp56]

Andrew:

I can't say for certain what the USSSA tournament policy is on protests, but for the youth organizations I work, a game is suspended until the properly lodged protest is resolved. I would imagine that USSSA has a similar policy.


Tim.

[RPatrino]

In my experience, most tourny's have a "settled on the spot" policy. So if a protest is lodged it is decided before play goes on.

[UmpJM]

andrewm,

I honestly don't know. It would depend on USSSA protest protocol and whether or not they would consider a protest that affected only the tournament seeding rather than the outcome of the game.

My guess would be that they would not, but that's only a guess.

JM