ASA sneaky stealing

[JEL]

Originally Posted by MarkPSkins

ASA Fastpitch. I was thinking about this after seeing this play in MLB the other night on TV. Say R1 is on first base and the pitcher has the ball in the circle and she is just standing there behind the pitcher's plate. The F6 and F4 are kind of not paying attention and the R1 just breaks off the bag to 2nd and beat the F6 and F4 to the bag. Is this legal? Time out has never been called.

That was a definite "brain fart" by the defense in that one! Had Escobar (I think it was him) not taken 2B he would have never scored, and tied the game in the top of the ninth. VERY alert baserunning from the kid. Even though that is rare, it can work in little ball because there is no requirement for maintaining base contact.

In fastpitch, once the pitcher has control of the ball in the circle, the runner(s) must stay on the base, or be called out. It is automatic. If the pitcher however is OUT of the circle, runners can go.