Catch/No Catch

[charliej47]

I was doing a game last summer and I was the BU. there were two outs and the batter hits a hard grounder to F1. F1 bobbles the ball and traps it against his chest and steps on 1st base. The B/R stops running and heads for the dugout. As soon as he stepped in the dugout I announce 'runner out for abandoning his base'. My partner complained that I should not have made the statement and just call the runner out. I stated that for the age group (U12), I was informing the coach and the score keeper the reason for the out. My partner stated let them come to me and ask the question if they needed information. I said for older kids I do but for younger ones they sometimes needed explanations so as not to do it again.