Collision at First Base

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by RKBUmp

This brings up a play presented at the national school. Hard ground ball to the right of F3. F3 fields the ball and its a race to the bag by both the batter/runner and F3. F3 dives for the base and tags it with the glove, but as she does the ball pops out. The ruling presented is the out stands as the out occured the instant F3 touched the base with the ball in her glove.

Question I have is, if the ball popped out of the glove as the base was being tagged, did F3 really have control of the ball?

I would argue she didn't. And I would call Safe on this play. If you argue that she did have control the instant she touched the base with the ball in her glove, you would never have a Safe call when a fielder tags a runner and then loses the ball during the tag.

To me, you must maintain control after the tag of the base or the runner. I don't read anything different in the definition of Tag between tagging the base or tagging the runner.