8U travel ball team, actual play earlier today. Runner on first, no out. Batter hits ground ball to 2nd baseman. Runner holds up half way to 2nd base to avoid being tagged. 2nd baseman throws to 1st and the batter is out. Runner instead of proceeding to 2nd runs back to 1st base. She reaches 1st without being tagged. The 1st baseman is still touching 1st with the ball in his glove. Is the runner safe at 1st? Umpire rules runner out for a double play. Coach disputes the call and the chief umpire is called in (this is a tournament with teams from all over). Chief umpire confirms the call, runner out for a double play. Coach drops it and play resumes. Was this a correct call?
I’m no rulebook expert, but if the force at second is taken out of play by going to first, the runner should need to be tagged. Whether returning to first or proceeding to second shouldn’t matter after the initial force at first is recorded.
The only way that I can see this possibly working is if the baserunner gets back to first before the batter reaches first and only then the first baseman steps on the bag while holding the ball. In that case the base runner is taking a base that she could not take as the batter was entitled to first base because the force wasn't yet made. From the description of the play I don't think that happened. But it is 8U ball so who knows what really happened.
This is Gainesville, FL. There are not enough teams in the rec league to schedule a season. They are forced to travel to play a season. Otherwise they are playing the same teams over and over. It's either this or not at all. No one likes travel for 7 and 8 year olds, it's developmental time not travel time.
