Crazy play

[nine01c]

I wrote to rulesofbaseball.com for their opinion of how to rule this situation. This was the reply I received:


"The pitch to the next batter would not necessarily mean the wrongly enforced walk would stand, though some umpires would use that rationale. If the pitch was batted you've probably crossed the point of no return and the umpires would have to "eat" the mistake. However, if it was not batted and runners were still in the positions they were in after the mistaken ruling, it would be an option to nullify the pitch or pitches and bring the batter back to bat with a 3-0 count. Fact of the matter is that the rules don't specifically cover this so an umpire would be expected to rule according to what he/she thought was fair.

World Umpires Association