2019 Appeal Exam Question

[Tru_in_Blu]

Originally Posted by youngump

The test question is from USA.

Let's just change this test question and take it deeply into dream land. Both teams had lost track of the inning and it's only the bottom of the 6th. The "winning" (go-ahead) run comes in to score. The players from the bases come in to celebrate with her touching home plate. No one appeals anything. The chaos settles with both teams heading to their dugouts. Do those runs score (the runner from first just missed 2nd and 3rd) or do we have abandonment and call them out when they get into the dugout in which case no appeal would be necessary and the order they enter the dugout would decide whether the first run scored?

To put it another way, there are two things I'm struggling with in this question. How does the ball become dead for a dead ball appeal and second how does one appeal that a runner ran from first to home instead of first to second?

First off, the scenario is a little far fetched to me in that both teams would unlikely mistake the inning. Maybe in a timed game where some assumptions had been made?

I don't do NCAA, so can't speak to that. From USA/NFHS perspective, in the first part, I would likely confer with a partner regarding abandonment. In the crush of players, it might be very confusing to determine which of the runners from second or first base or the BR entered the dugout area in which order. I would likely rule R2 and R3 out for abandonment while R1's run would count.

In the second part, who said the ball ever becomes dead? If the defense is aware enough and makes live ball appeals in the proper order, the run could be taken off the board. I still have a live ball waiting for somebody to do something. If nobody does anything except enter the dugouts, I've got the abandonment call(s).

Closest thing I had to this was a HS freshman game. With 1 out and a runner on third, the batter hit a fly ball to the outfield. The offensive coach was coaching third base and thought there were 2 outs. When the ball was hit, she was yelling at the runner at third to go home. The runner thought (correctly) that there was only 1 out and was planning to tag up. But the coach confused her, she dawdled between third and home. When the catch was made, the coach, thinking it was the third out simply ran off the field to the first base dugout. Her confused runner followed, not touching the plate. When the runner entered the dugout, we called her out for abandonment. Had she touched the plate, we would have had to wait for an appeal, because she never did tag up properly.