out of 3' baseline
 

Catcher receives the ball from third baseman. Ball is on fair side of her. As she turns with the ball to get ready to try to tag the runner the ball comes out of her glove. When the runner sees her turn she runs out of the 3' baseline. I call here out but later start thinking that maybe she didn't have the ball long enough for the runner to be considered to be avoiding a tag. This all happened in a split second. The ball basically went to the fielders glove and then was out and flying to the fence. What do you say? Dave

How can you call a runner out for avoiding a tag when the fielder didn't have possession of the ball?

I think this could have been a "no call", but I wasn't there.

I agree with Mike. Sounds like you were a bit too quick. No ball possession, so no tag to avoid.

Semantics
 

HTBT, but also, with the way the play sounds, you could probably have been slightly more lenient with the runner, as she technically has 3' to run to the outside/inside of her base path not just a 3 foot-wide running area to step in.

And I agree with above, as 8.7.A. states "..to avoid being tagged by the ball in the hand(s) of the fielder." - No ball in the hand(s) of a fielder attempting to tag = no running out of the base path.