illegal pitch or not

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by drwells1

Irish, I have been doing this for a while, and until the rule was changed a few years back, the runner could not leave the base until the ball was hit. I am not trying to be confrontational but if you are saying that the runner could always leave the bag once the ball reached the plate, I would like some clarification as to why it has not been used before the rule was changed.

The rule (8-7-R) has always been that the runner could not leave their base until the pitched ball is batted, reaches home plate or touches the ground. The only change that was made was that the runner could actually advance.

So before, the runner could take their foot off the bag when the ball reached the plate, but had to return if the ball wasn't hit.