What's the call
 

This happened to a colleague, I will describe as best I can.

ASA Men's SP 1-man Umpire
Bases are empty. Batter hits a little looper up the 1B line, and the ball is dropping about halfway between HP and 1B. F3 charges and attempts to catch the ball before it hits the ground. In the process, F3 loses his balance as he touches the ball, which is still in the air and in fair territory. F3 falls into foul area and the ball first contacts the ground in foul area. Umpire is signaling Fair Ball.

F3 picks up the ball and tosses to the pitcher, who is standing on PP. BR only took a step or two out of the box, and seeing the ball hit in foul territory, the batter returns to the box. Umpire has signaled Fair Ball throughout, but no one reacted.

Now, the umpire is standing along 1BE, waiting for a play to be made. F1 is looking at the umpire with a "come on, let's get going" look on his face. Batter is waiting for a pitch.

We still have a live ball, with no one attempting a play. The umpire cannot tell the batter to proceed to 1B, nor can he tell the pitcher to make a play.

What's the call?

This was just talked about recently. The proper "call" is to continue to point fair and wait. Nothing verbal. Point emphatically if you have to. Someone will get it eventually.

Mike, thank you. Now that you mention the recent discussion I remember that thread. Appreciate it!

Batter out for stepping back to the plate? You called fair ball, not your fault the players don't know the rules.

Not unless he's avoiding a tag.

You could argue that BR is avoiding the tag. F3 had the ball near first base line, BR could have been playing stupid and try to get away with not hearing/ seeing the call.

playing devils advocate, of course.

It wouldn't be a very compelling argument if the play is as described. It sounds like the BR never came close to F3, and F3 made absolutely no attempt to tag the BR after he picked up the ball.

The only proper call here is as MD already mentioned.

From the OP:
I know you said you are playing devils advocate, but as described, there is no way anyone could mistake this for "avoiding a tag"

Not sure why you'd want to argue it. Not our job, really. If you saw a tag attempt and BR retreated, that's one thing. If you see no tag attempt, you have nothing, and shouldn't need to argue one way or another.

Signal "louder" and continue to signal. Sooner or later somebody is going to realize what the fair/foul call was.

^^ this. If needed, walk down the line to where the ball was and point again, then step back and enjoy.

Had this happen at a HS game between two small schools, one where softball was first year program other 2nd year.

R1 at 3B. Batter hits ground ball down 3B line. R1 makes ill advised attempt to advance to home, changes her mind and tries to get back to 3B. F5 fields the ball and eventually tags out R1. The parents of the defense go wild (outs were kinda hard to come by in this game).

Meanwhile the batter-runner has picked up the bat and returned to the batters box as if awaiting the next pitch. (????) Apparently she thought it was a foul ball. More interesting was that this girls coach did not get what was happening, and for that matter it took the defense a few beats to figure it out.

I just stood off in foul ground with my mask off and waited. For a bit everyone just stood there. Then the light bulb went on in the defensive team's head coach who said "Throw the ball to 1B!". Batter-runner retired.

While I agree we can't as umpires tell the team to run to 1B or to throw to 1B at some point if they are really clueless I am going to verbally offer a clue.

In this case I had planned to stand there until someone woke up and play resumed or someone said "what's going on?". If it got to that point I would have said something like, "well, the batter hit a fair ball, and the ball is in play" and then wait some more. If they still don't get it I might say "I'm waiting for the batter-runner to reach first base or be put out".

I'm not telling either team what to do just verbally clarifying my call since obviously they don't get it.