[ASA Co-Ed SP] Baseline?

[Stat-Man]

There was one thing I forgot to mention about last week's SP game.

There was a situation that happened to each team where the umpire called out a player on each team for running out of the baseline. When it happened against our team, our player-manager asked the umprie who responded by saying that the base is 18 inches wide and the baseline extends 3 feet on either side.

Granted, I know very little about ASA rules for now, but I was under the impression a player was only out for being out of the baseline if they went more than 3 feet away from a fielder trying to put them out -- or is that just NFHS?

[Ed Maeder]

First of all a base line is an imaginary line directly between bases. What you are asking about is a base path. A base path is a line directly between a base and the runner's position at the time a defensive player is attempting to tag that runner. The runner may run no more than three feet from the base path to avoid being touched by the ball in the hand(s) of a fielder. A base is also 15 inches square not 18 inches. Some umpires know just about enough about the rules to get themselves in trouble.

[Stat-Man]

Ed:

Thanks for the response and the clarifications of terms.