Missed Tag: Whose Call?
 

In my Juco game this past weekend, we had the following play. Runner on third, less than two outs. Batter bunted the ball a little too hard towards first, about three feet or so in fair territory from the line, so that R1 didn't break toward home.

F3 fielded the ball pretty close to halfway up the line, and tried to tag the BR as she ran by, while looking at R1 to see if she was going. The tag was missed.

I'm the BU (only two-man), and I came in on the bunt to make the call at first base, thinking that F3 might throw to F4 covering. From my angle, I clearly saw the missed tag, so I gave a Safe mechanic. Problem was, my partner, who stayed home at first-base-line-extended in case R1 tried to score, also saw the miss and gave a Safe mechanic as well.

So, we had two umpires making a call on the same play, which is a no-no. What's the protocol here in softball? I always thought that the PU would take tags short of the three-foot lane, and then the BU handled it. This was basically right at the halfway point.

Needless to say, this wasn't something my partner and I covered during pregame.

I was always taught the same thing you said...PU has the call up to where the running lane starts, BU has it after that. Are you saying that the tag attempt happened near the point the running lane started?

I would say that close to the running lane, the PU should defer to the BU, but that is my opinion only, not some official word from on high.

Look at the bright side...at least you both had the same call!:D

This is the same practice I was taught, but in the past few years, I have abandoned it.

I assume the three-foot-lane rule was formulated because it provided a visual reference for the decision as to who will take the call. But to me, more critical is, "Who has the angle?" In your scenario, it will typically be the PU because they are on the first-base-line-extended, but once the batter-runner is past the 1B, it is more likely to be the BU who has the angle.

And, yes, I pre-game this one.

We here in Richmond have adopted the mechanic that whenever the BU is in the 'C' position, the PU takes ALL tag plays anywhere along the first base line, as he/she has the better angle on this type of play.

As previously mentioned, make sure you pre-game this.

bu