In our Men's C SP States yesterday, I was called onto the field to make a ruling on a play.

Three umpire system. No runners. 0-1 count on batter.

U2 rules illegal pitch (not in contact with pitcher's plate). Batter gets a clean base hit to right field.

Umpire inadvertently (okay, he just screwed up) calls "time" and BR picks up his bat and returns to the plate.

What is your ruling?

1) The BR has the right to the hit and the umpire in chief (not tourn. UIC, the PU) can rectify a problem caused by an umpire; so allow the BR whatever base he would have attained, ITUJ (like obs).
2) See my signature.

Since the BR did not run or attempt to reach 1B, the umpires on the field decided to have the Batter continue his turn at bat with a 1-1 count enforcing the illegal pitch. The offense than protested.

"Since the BR did not run or attempt to reach 1B, the umpires on the field decided to have the Batter continue his turn at bat with a 1-1 count enforcing the illegal pitch. The offense than protested."

The fact that the runner didn't take off adds a kink because the defense could of had a shot at throwing him out. That said....

"Umpire inadvertently (okay, he just screwed up) calls "time" and BR picks up his bat and returns to the plate"

Seems to me that the BR stopped with the time call because he had dropped the bat and for me that'd be enough to say he gets first on the inadvertant "time" call.

My guess
 

I would have to go with placing the runner on the base that they should have obtain had the BU not called "time" on the play I dont believe you can expect the BR to continue running after time had been called


What would of been interesting though if the Batter had grounded to F6 and a possible putout and the BU called "Time" then I would say you have stickier situation BUT I believe that you would probably still have to gave the BR 1st base and take a lot of heat from the defensive side.
I believe it goes back to you cant guess an OUT.


JMOs'

Don

The original post did not say "the BR did not run or attempt to reach 1B". A "clean base hit" implied to me that he reached 1st.

Technically, the illegal pitch cannot be enforced because it was nullified the moment the batter swung at / made contact with the ball (6S-Sections1-7-EFFECT-C). The rule says "all play stands."

That leaves us with an umpire calling TIME during live ball playing action. It has nothing to do with the illegal pitch at this point.

The best you can do is to try to rectify the goof up by the umpire. Placing the BR at 1st seems like a reasonable judgment to make.

Mike,

The illegal pitch is ignored once the batter swings at the pitch. There was a play going on, when the umpires called time. I think you need to place the runners where you think they would have ended if time was not called.

Do I need to get on Sam tonight?????

No, Sam had already left the complex.

So Mike, how did you solve the protest? BR at 1st?

Since the batter put the ball into play, the illegal pitch is cancelled, so there is no ball/strike count to worry about.

Once the umpire killed the play, I was required to allow any runners to complete their running assignments. Since there is only one base available to the BR, I ruled the BR awarded 1B.

The defense didn't like it, but there was very little choice.

And, yes, the crew and I had a nice little discussion after the game and before any post-game refreshments.

"only one base available to the BR" ???

Yes, 1B. I certainly cannot place him on home plate, can I? That was the premise of my statement.

Now, if you are insinuating that I could have awarded more bases, I don't believe that would have been appropriate since the BR made no, nada, zero, zilch effort to even advance to 1B, let alone any further.

Gotcha! And yes, that was what I was implying. My original read of "clean base hit" was that he ran to 1st.

Does your ruling agree with my first answer:
"The BR has the right to the hit and the umpire in chief (not tourn. UIC, the PU) can rectify a problem caused by an umpire; so allow the BR whatever base he would have attained, ITUJ (like obs). "? Except, it could be tourn. UIC or the PU.

But, Cecil, didn't Mike state directly in his second posting that the BR abandoned his attempt to 1st base?