Umpire Blunder. What to do?

[UmpireErnie]

It should be stated that getting the strike three call correct is NOT an "appeal play" which is generally where the whole "before the next pitch" thing comes in.

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

Correctable error. Put R1 back on 2nd, 2 outs, B5 is in the box.

So your saying correct the error in the count (B4 is out) and that the pitches after strike three to B4 are all negated right? And BOO would not apply because we put the offense in jeopardy of BOO by blowing the count.

This was my initial thought, but I wanted to find back up in the book. The OP said "high school game" so I went to the NFHS book first.

10-2-3 (m) ad (n) seem to be enough to go with your ruling.
Is counting strike three as a second strike two a scorekeeping error as in (n)? But (m) seems to apply in any case. There is no verbiage here about "before the next pitch" in this section and it's not an appeal play.

But speaking ASA, their rule 10 does not specify the scorekeeping error and the "jeopardy rule" in 10-3-C is all I can find and that rule has it's own "before the next pitch" verbiage. It would seem if we continued with B4 batting and incorrectly called strike three as strkie two and another pitch is thrown that is WAS strike two even though it was the second strike two. It's too late to fix it under 10-3-C.

In neither book can I find the term "correctable error". While I hate to see the rule books grow I am thinking maybe there should be something on this.

Mike, I willing to be convinced to do it your way, in fact I already was convinced. But I can't find it in ASA. Am I missing something?

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by UmpireErnie

Mike, I willing to be convinced to do it your way, in fact I already was convinced. But I can't find it in ASA. Am I missing something?

What would you do as the UIC if a batter hit the ball to dead center for a what would be a clear base hit and the plate umpire screams "foul"?

I'll tell you what the answer is from members of the ASA NUS over the past 15 years or so. You place the batter on 1B and assume the defense would have cleanly fielded the base hit, move all runners one base.

Is it a compromise? Yep. Is someone going to be upset? Possibly, but not as much if you just stand there and say "oops, my bad". Not everything is or can be in the book, especially to accommodate the umpire's screw ups.

This batter was out. Umpire failed to enforce the rule and the batter stayed. If this were a BR who returned to bat again after being called out or something similar, maybe BOO then, but not when it is the umpire's error. Yes, the offense should have been aware of the count. And so should have the defense. AND so should the umpire. This is a total fail for everyone.

Again, regardless of the rule set, I'm sticking with my ruling.