Need help with appeal rule

[Buckeye12]

Tonight, I was umpiring 14-16 year olds under FED rules. B1 hits a shot to left center, misses first base, hessitates after he rounds the base, then continues to second. The ball comes in to the pitcher, but he never steps on the rubber. The coach tells him to appeal to first. It took the pitcher about 30 seconds to figure out what the coach was telling him to do. The ball is thrown over for the appeal and I call the runner out. My question is this, was this appeal legal under the new FED live ball appeal rule? Time was not called, so the ball was still live, correct? The coach was arguing that since playing action had stopped, the ball was dead. He also said that since I had put my mask back on, that meant the ball was dead. I have no clue where he got that one! Anyway, if I was incorrect, please explain the proper procedure that should be followed in this situation. Also, if an appeal is improperly made, does that nullify the possibility for an appeal? Thanks.