Pitcher Rubbing Softball on Pants
 

Hello. So I have been officiating baseball for quite some time and have recently started to do softball on a regular basis and my rules are coming together slightly. In my game tonight the pitcher would take the softball and rub it up against her leg. She would then put the ball into her glove and proceed to immediately pitch. Is the rubbing of the softball up against the leg legal or is this not allowed and an immediate illegal pitch once she does it? I did not call an illegal pitch but instructed the manager that she could not do this and he did not object and the pitcher stopped. One of the coaches of the team with this pitcher is the official scorer for a local D1 university in town and after the game he asked me exactly what she was doing wrong. He was polite about it, but he said that is the first he had heard that and knew that it was legal in college ball as a few of the pitchers for the team he did book for did it and nothing was ever said. He did acknowledge that we were not playing college D1 softball rules and that maybe the rule set was different. Now am I correct or am I mixing up softball and baseball?

Unless there's something on her pant leg that gets applied to the ball when she does so, it's not illegal.

There is no violation here, but let me ask you a question. Was she rubbing the ball on her leg or "rolling" the ball trying to set up her grip?

Or if she is wearing sandpaper thus defacing the ball!

I see no violation in what you saw.

Add my reply to the rest. As described, perfectly legal.