Questions for my softball team

[billroper]

Here are a couple of questions about the infield fly rule for a lazy Saturday morning. Let's see who knows the answers. Tell me what you do and why. Parents do not get to play. :)

Runners on first and second. There is one out. The batter hits a pop fly on the infield and the umpire raises his hand straight up and shouts "Infield fly".

1) You are the batter. What do you do?

2) The second baseman catches the ball on the fly. You are the runner who was on first. Where should you be?

3) The ball is popped to the third baseman. You are the runner on second. For some mysterious reason, you are halfway between second and third when the third baseman drops the ball. She casually picks up the ball, steps on the third base bag, and throws the ball back to the pitcher. What should you do?

Comments

[jennlk]

well, um. er. (NB I am a parent, but neither of my kids played softball/baseball past Tball; I never played softball; my sister did play varsity fast-pitch in HS, but she's two years behind me, and that was 35+ years ago.)

My understanding is that:
1) the batter is out. end of her story
2) still on first, unless you *really* think you can beat the ball to second base (making the third out on a baserunning blunder is, um, suboptimal)
3) run back to second, or on to third, depending on which direction you're already going. It's not a force play, so you are not out until you are tagged.

[billroper]

That's pretty much it. The runner on first has to tag up at first before they could try to advance, because the ball was caught. And on an infield fly, the chances of advancing are pretty low. :)