by BearFlagFan » Mon Jul 02, 2012 8:28 am
By rule, his ruling is correct since his judgment was she did not try to get out of the way of the ball. Dead ball, ball.
In a rec tournament final, I had a batter "twist" into the ball, but she twisted right into the strike zone - she didn't need to move but did and she was hit in the strike zone, and it was the 3rd strike. She didn't do it on purpose. Girl goes down in a crying heap. Coach, who doesn't understand what happens to an injured player with lineups (his whole experience was with batting around), asks if he "has" to use a substitute for an injured player. I look at him and say "Yes, normally, but I'm sorry to tell you this coach, but she got hit in the strike zone. It's dead ball strike 3, she's out." Pandemonium ensues, lots of yelling. I end up ejecting head coach, assistant coach (who was her dad) and two fans. Protest by other assistant. UIC upholds my ruling, extra tourney officials are brought in to sit in stands to restore order. Afterward, UIC says "By rule, you made the right ruling. But common sense says you should have just put her on base since they were already losing by 5 runs. In a HBP situation, unless you really know she was trying to get hit, just give her the base." Since then there's been a few times I have not given a player 1B on an HPB, but in every case she either didn't move or moved just slightly to get into the way of the ball, and was old enough to know better.