errant throw revisited

[Little Jimmy]

Today I had a play that brought up the term "errant throw" and it's meaning. I searched and found it discussed on this forum back in 06 but I thought I'd put it out there again. USSSA rules but since they basicly mirror Fed, and since most things got their start in ASA, any ruleset interpretation would be helpful.

Routine hit to short. Bad throw to 1st pulls her completely off of the white bag and completely on the orange. Catch is made with foot completely on the orange. Relatively slow runner is not obstructed and touches orange. I hesitate, and as runner turns back I signal safe, thinking that an "errant throw" is one that has been misplayed or overthrown. Runner stays on first, time is called and although my partner thinks I'm wrong, we decide to stick with my call. Game is a blow out at that point and defense doesn't really care.

After the game we look at the Utrip book and 8-19-B-exception2 mentions errant throw. So does Fed 8-10-2-b and ASA 8-2-M-5. But there is no real definition as to what that means. In the play I described, does catching a bad throw completely on the orange bad qualify, in your opinion, as an errant throw?

[AtlUmpSteve]

The interpretation of ASA is what you called; runner is safe. Catching a bad throw off the white bag does not meet the intent nor the rule.

If an errant throw takes the F3 into foul territory, and off the white bag, then F3 can RETURN to the orange bag (not required to cross it to tag the white). But, it is not "one big bag" for a bad throw on a play on a batter-runner, it is a safety bag AFTER the ball is coming from foul ground.

Since NFHS makes the double base optional, our Georgia interpretation for high school is to call the same as ASA, if a double base is used.