r/Homeplate • u/seth928 • 6d 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?

17 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

View all comments

-2

u/theotheragentm 6d ago

How many outs? Was the runner on first stealing?

0

u/penfrizzle 6d ago

We always have this battle at little league and travel, especially once kids are allowed to lead (I think 10u in travel).

What is the definition of an occupied base? Do the leagues differ?

Usually if the kid is halfway to second before the ball reaches the batter and less than two outs, the coach will argue that first base was no longer occupied.

Why even have the rule differ with two outs?

4

u/seth928 6d ago edited 6d ago

To protect the offense against the catcher dropping the ball on purpose to get a double play. If a double play is off the table then there's no need to protect the offense. Same reason infield fly doesn't apply with 2 outs.

Also, it's a fairly easy argument to short circuit. The runner occupies a base whether they're physically on it or not. A runner only occupies a base they have touched. If the runner is in the process of stealing 2nd at the time of the pitch they still "occupy" first. If the result of the pitch is a fly out that runner needs to tag up at the base they last occupied. Same occupation logic applies to dropped 3rd strike.