Batting out of Order

[Rick Vietti]

Here is the situation: High School Visiting team is up by 12 runs and coach subs two girls in batting order in 8 & 9th spot. I record the changes and announce the subs by the numbers he gave me. They come up to bat top of 5 (game to be over if they hold at bottom of 5)and they bat out of order. The improper batter gets a base hit.

Home team coach appeals and I call out the girl who should have batted and proceed to remove the girl from first and have her bat again. The visiting team coach asks graciously the home coach if he would allow the girl who did not bat at all the chance to bat. In effect we would be batting out of order again. He agreed and so did I so that the girl would get an at bat for the game.

The visiting coach tells his girls that he messed up and we ended the game without any further problems.

I think I will change my mechanic for recording and reporting subs and be more pro-active and also ask for the names of the subs and who they are replacing. That way if the coach just tells me the proper name but screws up the number we can catch it before we even start.

My question is does anyone else use this type of mechanic and is it effective.