ASA ball on batter

[chapmaja]

Originally Posted by grounder

a ball on the batter should be called when the catcher fails to return the ball directly to the pitcher as required.....no runners on base, the catcher accidently overthrows the pitcher when returning a pitched ball. the shortstop chases the errant throw and picks it up behind second base and returns it to the pitcher......do you call a ball on the batter for this?

Not a NCAA ump, but there is no way I would call this, unless I was 100% sure it was intentionally being done.

If it is simply an overthrow, I have nothing. If I know a team is warming up a new pitcher, and all of the sudden the ball is thrown on the fly to the CF, then something is amiss. If it happens more than once, something's amiss.