Softball

[Roger Greene]

I've checked the 2001 Fed rule book.

Ther is only one violation of rule 3-3-1 in which an offensive player is called out in addition to being ejected or restricted to to the bench. That violation is 3-3-1s, malicious contact. The specific penalty is found in the "Penalty" paragraph that covers subsections r,s and t.

In all other cases you only warn, eject or restrict. If a player is restricted or ejected for any violation except malicious contact, she may be replaced by a legal sub, and play is resumed without an out being called. If no legal substitute is available of an offensive player on base, I assume the last batter who had completed her turn at bat who is not on base could continue to run the bases untill scoring or being put out. At that point, the team would be "playing short". If no legal sub was available for a batter, then I would apply a BOO interpertation to complete the at bat, and proceed if the offending team still had 8 legal players.

The moral of the story is to be very careful of applying an illegal sub rule when we are talking about unreported subs. They are very different animinals, but very easy for people to confuse.

Roger Greene,
Member UT