Little League Balk

[bsaucer]

Originally Posted by victory

Hello,
I'm looking at LL RB 7.07 in which during a squeeze attempt and the catcher moves in front of or on the plate or contacts the batter or bat. The umpire is supposed to rule a balk on the pitcher and award first to the batter on the interference. Why not just call interference and give home and first due to that? Why the balk call - is that simply to justify the award of home?

What started out as a pitching motion ended up as a throw to the plate... Balk! They'll call a balk if the catcher leaves the box before the ball leaves the pitcher's hand.

[Ump153]

Originally Posted by bsaucer

What started out as a pitching motion ended up as a throw to the plate... Balk! They'll call a balk if the catcher leaves the box before the ball leaves the pitcher's hand.

As long as the pitcher continued to a make legal pitching delivery, it is still a pitch and not a throw.

A pitcher may disengage and throw to home.

[Rich Ives]

Originally Posted by bsaucer

What started out as a pitching motion ended up as a throw to the plate... Balk! They'll call a balk if the catcher leaves the box before the ball leaves the pitcher's hand.

What started out as a pitching motion ended up as a throw to the plate... Balk!

Nope. It's still a pitch.

They'll call a balk if the catcher leaves the box before the ball leaves the pitcher's hand

The interpretation in use is that the catcher cannot move from the box until the time of the pitch - which is when the motion commits the pitcher to pitch.

[dash_riprock]

Originally Posted by bsaucer

They'll call a balk if the catcher leaves the box before the ball leaves the pitcher's hand.

That's the rule (on an IBB), but I've never seen it called and I hope I never do.