Is he out?

[Gre144]

B1 on First with one out. Long Fly ball to the outfield. B1 advances to second base, rounds it but misses the base. F7 catches the ball. B1 seeing this runs in a straight line back to first base without retouching second base(remember he never touched second base to begin with even though he rounded second base). He makes it back to first base in plenty of time.

We called him out on the appeal for not retouching second base. Coach comes yelling out at us saying that he doesn't have to retouch second base since he never touched it to begin with.

1) Does B1 have to retouch second base, on his way back to first base, on a caught ball even though he never touched second base as he was advancing towards it(He went beyond it but did not touch it)?

2) If not, could have I called B1 out anyway for running out of the baseline?(I don't think that I could because according to 8-4-2N a runner establishes his baseline as directly between his position and the base he is running towards. With this in mind it seems that B1, can run from his position beyond second base back to first in a direct line)

Thanks,

Greg

[Edited by Gre144 on Jul 19th, 2003 at 02:27 PM]