Illegal pitch or no pitch.

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by chapmaja

One thing I have learned to do it wait until the pitcher finishes their delivery before I come up and call anything. Last season I was the base umpire in a situation where the plate umpire called a no pitch (ball from another field came onto our field). The pitcher was in the middle of her motion and tried stopping. Unfortunately she tried stopping her motion midway through and did something to her arm. She ended up missing a few weeks of the season with an arm injury.

I agree with you on a situation like that. Had a D3 game a while back where partner in D gave a half-hearted "no-pitch" (I didn't hear him) call when he saw a beach ball fall into foul ground in deep right field... He did this as the pitcher was about to release - the pitch got by and a run scored. Who knows whether his call affected the pitcher --- but that run that we had to take off the board was the only runner to cross the plate for either side until the 14th inning. Needless to say, he bought the beer that night.

(OTOH ... on a No Pitch caused by action on the field, like a runner leaving early, it really should be called immediately - or you could open a whole different can of worms if the ball is put in play and you try to kill it then).