Hit by pitch, without contact?

[chapmaja]

I think the situation is actually very simple. The umpires, who likely have not faced this type situation at the college level, kicked the call. The scorer had to put something in the scorebook, and since it can't count as an intentional walk since 4 pitches were not delivered, found the only thing they could think of to indicate the award of first base without the 4 pitches being delivered. NCAA scoring rules, IIRC, require the count to be listed on the play by play, so you can't have a walk with B-B. I think this was a scorer trying to go on the fly with a situation nobody has even seen. I've never seen this, nor have I ever heard of this happening at any level, let alone the highest level of college softball.