Whoa. What's going on here?

[WestMichiganBlue]

FED varsity, small school, caliber of play not much better than average JV. Offensive team has rally going, has taken the lead, and still has bases loaded.

Pitcher's motion: hands separated, bring together at waist, raise to just above head, bring down to hip, separate and start windmill motion. Basically standard delivery.

As her hands reach the top, someone yells "TIME." She brings her hands down to the hip and stops! A fraction of a second later runner comes off 1B a couple steps. I look up and see Defensive Coach coming out looking at me with his hand up.

So, we have an illegal pitch. We have a runner off the base. The ball is still live. And a coach that must be guilty of something? What is your call?

WMB

[oppool]

Here is my answer: Illegal pitch (delay dead ball) when the pitcher stopped the pitch we have a dead ball so the runner coming off the base is not a problem award 2nd base to the runner and a ball to the batter AND then a stern warning to the coach I would think they would have learn from this mistake when not to yell out "TIME"


JMO

Don

After re-reading your post I am not sure who called "TIME" if it came from an offensive coach or fan than I would change my call to "NO PITCH" if it was the offense coach possible ejection for USC.

Just some more opinions

Don

[Edited by oppool on May 9th, 2003 at 11:13 PM]

[WestMichiganBlue]

Oppool - It becomes an illegal pitch the instant she stops her pitching motion. Are you saying that delayed dead ball, and dead ball occur simultanously?

As far as the coach is concerned, there wasn't a hole big enough to swallow him up when he realized what he had done.

What is interesting is that if it have been the offensive coach yelling time the call would have been "no pitch" and all subsequent action would have been cancelled.

WMB

[kellerumps]

WMB,

I think he was saying that the illegal pitch was a delayed dead ball. When it becomes apparent that she was not going to pitch the ball at all, then we have a Dead Ball.

I don't really see how you can punish the runner at first for anything since you have an illegal pitch.

So the defensive coach was the one who called time?

[CecilOne]

The delay of dead ball is to allow the batter to swing. If the pitcher then stops completely, no further delay is needed. The runner is awarded the next base as long as the runner left the base after the pitch became illegal.

[Steve M]

I agree with Cecil & the Kellers. Dead Ball when the pitcher stops the windmill. Since the coach already knew he'd shown some idiocy with this, I don't see further penalty for the coach.

Steve M