Ole Miss pitcher
 

Watching Ole Miss/Long Beach State. Anyone think the Ole Miss pitcher is sometimes illegal? She definitely doesn’t stop for 2 seconds each time. She’s very irregular.

#3 Kaitlin Lee, not the closer in the 7th.

Warning: This topic is a recent pet peeve of mine. Forgive the long response.

I haven't been watching (since I don't have cable), but she probably is occasionally pitching illegally by the letter of the rule, if you're talking about the same pitcher I think it is. The 2-second pause rule has been inconsistently enforced AND interpreted in its first year of existence. I mention both points, as you used the word "stop" in the post.

RE interpretation: At no point in NCAA softball is a full stop required. This is not baseball. Continuous bodily motion during this "pause" is permitted. I've worked a tiny bit of "real" NCAA ball, and a bunch of lower-level play governed by this year's book. This year, I've heard from GOOD JC and ++ umpires: "we need a stop". This is not the approved ruling. What is required by rule is a hands-separated period of time when the feet are legal and before the hands come together (exactly as every other lower US softball code) of 2 seconds or more (for once, NCAA is MORE specific than other codes....tongue firmly in cheek).

In practice, the enforcement has not been 2 full seconds. Two seconds is a surprisingly long time to watch F1 do nothing prepitch. In practice, a legal pause of greater than 1+ second has been ruled OK on the field. Also, like most pitching violations, when a pitcher is inconsistent, its really hard as umpires to get all the IPs we could or should call by book. Since this is a timing violation, rather than feet, this is 100% a PU initial call. Base umpires should only be getting this one if the hands are together before both feet are on the plate and (IMHO) the PU has passed on calling this a few times. Feel free to disagree, but IMO....this depends on the crew. As you all may or should know, some among us really don't like base umpires calling IPs for violations the PU "should get". Depends on the crew, but I think we gotta get these if the PU doesnt.

I'm not Rules & Mechanics God, nor would I want to be. I will say (with the usual IMHO caveat) that the currently-observed enforcement of a legit pause of 1+ seconds prior to bringing the hands together is a great leap forward to what the rulewriters wanted, and it has certainly made it simpler for us to call IPs when pitchers "walk into the pitch"....I called a bunch of these this year, after working through the catcher (and sometimes the coaches) to get the pitcher to slow down. I have a funny story about that, but now's not the time. :D

I was using the old “one Mississippi, two Mississippi” as a gauge, and I was getting to “one Miss...” before she was putting her hands together and starting the motion. I guess I’m already burned out (high school season) with very few umps calling any illegal pitches, no matter what the infraction. The Ole Miss pitcher was sometimes so quick that I would have called it in high school. Just thought at this college level...