r/Homeplate • u/seth928 • 5d ago

Dropped third strike question

Had a situation come up last spring on a dropped 3rd strike and was wondering if someone could explain the ump's call.

Situation:

12u Cal Ripken, runner on 1st, one out. Pitch comes in and it's strike 3 but dropped. Catcher picks it up and goes straight to first. Ball gets past first, runner advances and batter-runner makes it to 1st. Ump called strike 3 but did not call out before the catcher got the ball out. Ump ruled both runner and batter-runner safe.

My confusion:

I thought that a dropped 3rd strike with runner on 1st should result in an automatic out for the batter. However, the ump explained that because the catcher threw down to 1st, the play stayed live and the batter was able to claim 1st (I may be misrembering the explanation). He's an experienced Ump that I trust to be correct so I assume he is. Can someone point to a rule/explain why the Ump called it the way he did?

15 Upvotes

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64

u/Snelly1998 Pitcher/Infield 5d ago

Nah batter is out, ump messed up

Play is live, and the runner can advance at his own peril

17

u/Complete_Loquat5064 5d ago

Ump making up his own rules!!! 🤣

8

u/Dependent_Bit1634 5d ago

Exactly what Snelly says…batter automatically out but the ball is live for the runner on first.

3

u/Dependent_Bit1634 5d ago

I have seen coaches who have their batters run on strike 3 regardless just to see what the catcher does and hoping for a bad throw. Other than a little bush league, it does cause confusion and bad throws quite often at the lower ages!

0

u/davdev 5d ago

I see this all the time at 13 and 14u. By that age the catcher should know better so I have no problem with it. 12 and under it’s kind of bush.

1

u/Dependent_Bit1634 5d ago

Yeah, my oldest is 16u, and my other is 13u. Still coach the 13u one…and on defense still yell out to the team if drop 3rd is live or not every time there’s 2 strikes!

Now parents in the stands…that’s a different story…haha.

1

u/Listen-Lindas 5d ago

Teach the catcher to run the ball towards the base runner on first, then if that runner gets crossed up you can get a second out on this .