Illegal pitch or no pitch.

[CecilOne]

Originally Posted by chapmaja

The pitcher begins her pitching motion, and as she steps forward she stumbles, as a result of the stumble, she never releases the pitch.

At the same time she is in her pitching motion and would have normally released the pitch, the runner at second is called out by my BU for leaving base before the pitch is released.

We come together and try to determine when she left the base and how it compared with the time the pitch would have been released, had the pitch been released.

What should the call be.

1) Illegal pitch, because she never released the pitch.

2) No pitch, the runner is out for leaving the base early.

3) The way we handled it. Basically a simultaneous violation by the pitcher and by the runner.

As I read the OP (see bold), the runner left while the pitcher was in her motion,
therefore before release and before the stumble,
therefore before the pitching violation.

If so, why wouldn't the "leave early" take precedence?

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by CecilOne

As I read the OP (see bold), the runner left while the pitcher was in her motion,
therefore before release and before the stumble,
therefore before the pitching violation.

If so, why wouldn't the "leave early" take precedence?

Perhaps you're reading it differently than me... You only bolded part of it ... the unbolded is where I got what I got...

"At the same time she is in her pitching motion and would have normally released the pitch, the runner at second is called out by my BU for leaving base before the pitch is released. "

I took this to mean that at the time the pitcher would have normally released the pitch, the runner ran. IOW, had the pitch been made when it was supposed to, the runner would have been legal.

[jmkupka]

I'll take a crack at this...

For the same reason the pitcher cannot retouch hands after separating. The runners base their timing on the pitcher's actions.

Granted, no matter what the pitchers do (legally) in their mechanics (and there are some strange variations), the runner can't break until release; however, we have to judge that whatever caused the pitcher to stumble was enough to screw up the runner's timing.