Injuries

[Tru_in_Blu]

I had a girl's JO league playoff game today. This league allows for all girls present to bat, open substitution on defense.

Today, both teams started shorted handed, allowed by league rules. One team started 9 fielders, the other started 8 fielders.

Two separate injury situations occurred today.

First was a batter swung at a pitch and took the ball off the wrist. Initially, she was going to leave the game. The team was batting 8 at the time and obviously had no substitutes. Coach asked "now what?" I didn't recall anything in their bylaws about this situation, so I told him that he would have to take an out if the girl couldn't return to bat. He wanted the next batter to come up and assume the count, but I said that would constitute batting out of order. The injured girl did return to bat and took a called 3k. If she had not been able to return, would the out be the proper call?

Second situation was the team fielding 9 had a batter take a pitch off the ankle and left the game. Again, no substitutes, so I allowed a courtesy runner [last out made] to replace her on first base. So now the injured player is out of the game. She did not return to her defensive position, so the team went from 9 to 8 [also allowed per bylaws]. During the course of the game, she missed her at-bat(s) w/ no penalty, and did not play defense. In the last inning, one of her teammates had to leave, and the coach asked if she could return to play defense. I initially stated that she could not, but we had a league official-type person there, and he said she could go in on defense. I think this may be a case of the bylaws superceding ASA. Did I have the ASA application correct? I.E. Player could not return after leaving due to injury [which was not blood rule related]?

Thanx...

Ted