Official Ruling on the Lady Vols vs UCLA Controversy

[2EastTnVols]

Here’s another mind boggling play from this game, the UCLA runner leaving 3rd base on the infield fly that our shortstop missed. If she would have stayed at 3rd base she was safe. That’s not a force play, runners advance at their own risk. It’s just like she was stealing 3rd base and she would have to be tagged to be out. I can’t believe our 3rd baseman didn’t know this and UCLA 3rd base coach not telling her to stay on the bag. She was out because she left the field and went to the dugout. It’s a confusing play that should be practiced by all teams in situational awareness. I’ve seen good high school teams cover this exact situation. Also, An infielder cannot drop an infield fly situation on purpose to get runners to leave the base. I still cant believe that play happened at that level of softball and no one knew the rule with the situation.

Correct, and if she'd touched home after rounding 3rd instead of heading straight to the dugout the run would've counted. No one from either team knew the rule apparently.

 

[Volwonder1]

To me would like to see rule Change of if an out of the park HR occurs
1) HR no matter what
2) even if base runner leaves early, HR stays intact

Homeplate=endzone

No endzone no TD…Don’t cross homeplate no run. It’s taught in little league and tee ball

 

[M40]

Homeplate=endzone

No endzone no TD…Don’t cross homeplate no run. It’s taught in little league and tee ball

I’m talking about for 2026. The ball is not coming back. It’s a formality and somewhat of a celebration circling the bases.

Same as a base runner leaving early on a HR. Has zero impact on the play.

 

[Volwonder1]

I’m talking about for 2026. The ball is not coming back. It’s a formality and somewhat of a celebration circling the bases.

Same as a base runner leaving early on a HR. Has zero impact on the play.

Babe Ruth could have played 15 more seasons as a DH cracking homers if he didn’t have to run the bases…and cross home plate

 

[vol94]

The bags and plate are necessary for in-play ball. Requiring them to be touched on a home run does nothing to enhance the game nor does it do anything to ensure fairness in the game, The only thing it does is make the game worse by making us spend 10 minutes watching officials standing around reviewing replays over something so trivial.


Yes.

This forum's obsession with "omg everyone hates tennessee" needs to die.

You obviously haven’t seen TN sports over the past 15 plus yrs.


I don’t think anyone is out to get us but one has to admit TN athletics is involved in some precarious situations where “calls” go against us.

 

[Dadof2Vols]

Yep, it was obviously a case of they were looking for any reason to not make the correct call. Everybody was thinking, "Gosh, it would be just awful if UCLA lost because they didn't follow that one silly little rule about touching all the bases," but totally disregarded how also utterly crappy and unfair it would have been if Tennessee had ended up losing a game that, by the rules, they should have won in the top of the 7th.

I have always said the same thing in regard to basketball, when the expectation now is that if a player fouls in the last couple seconds of a close game that the officials should not call the foul in order to "keep the game from being decided by the refs."

I've always thought that was TOTAL BULL. If there was a foul, then do NOT take away the possibility of one team to win because the other team fouled just because you hate to see someone lose on a last-second foul. It's the most ridiculously, non-sensically, infuriatingly unfair idea in sports to me to award one team a pass just because of WHEN they made their mistake. That unfairly punishes the team that had fairly put themselves in position to win. Ugh.

If the desire to have a Ref/Ump not decide a game by not calling a game deciding play isn’t the ref deciding the game by not making the call?

Just sayin.

 

[37620VOL]

This is D1, not church league softball, you HAVE to touch 'em all. Any argument to the contrary is really, really dumb.

 

[Dadof2Vols]

I’m talking about for 2026. The ball is not coming back. It’s a formality and somewhat of a celebration circling the bases.

Same as a base runner leaving early on a HR. Has zero impact on the play.

This is how we have gotten in this world that rules and laws don’t matter.

Then why write them, if you aren’t going to enforce them.

You and I obviously view the world differently.

 

[M40]

This is D1, not church league softball, you HAVE to touch 'em all. Any argument to the contrary is really, really dumb.

Agree for current rules. If you want the game to keep growing then some rules need to change

 

[volfan102455]

Here’s another mind boggling play from this game, the UCLA runner leaving 3rd base on the infield fly that our shortstop missed. If she would have stayed at 3rd base she was safe. That’s not a force play, runners advance at their own risk. It’s just like she was stealing 3rd base and she would have to be tagged to be out. I can’t believe our 3rd baseman didn’t know this and UCLA 3rd base coach not telling her to stay on the bag. She was out because she left the field and went to the dugout. It’s a confusing play that should be practiced by all teams in situational awareness. I’ve seen good high school teams cover this exact situation. Also, An infielder cannot drop an infield fly situation on purpose to get runners to leave the base. I still cant believe that play happened at that level of softball and no one knew the rule with the situation.

That was an odd one and if fundamentals had been taught to both the player and obviously a coach as well - the out would not have occurred.

The other one that I remember in one of the Lady Vols games that shows WHY a player runs the bases and needs to be aware of the call was the play where the umpire did not signal a home run and our player was tagged out at 3rd. After the review, the home run was confirmed and the run counted. Had the player vacated the bases due to being called out and went to the dugout - she would have probably been ruled out because she did not touch all the bases before leaving the field regardless of the fact that it was later confirmed as a home run.

I understand the concept of a player making an error - but am amazed when the fundamentals are not understood.

 

[glv98]

The announcers said during the review that the penalty for being assisted by an ineligible player is just a warning. The umps repeated that after the game. The run was always going to count.

This whole thing is mountain out of molehill, except the embarrassing silliness of all that time reviewing a nonreviewable call. Move the celly away from the plate. Runners will then always touch and umps will always see if they do or don't. All that show over every homer is bush league high school Harry anyway.

 

[volfan102455]

To me would like to see rule Change of if an out of the park HR occurs
1) HR no matter what
2) even if base runner leaves early, HR stays intact

Regarding number 2, I believe there was a call in one game I watched (... watched too many this last week to remember which one ...), where a player was called out for leaving the base early. I agree it would have no bearing on the HR by another player, assuming that player touches all the bases - but the player that left early should be OUT. Their action was before the HR occurred.

 

[creekdipper]

It being a "fundamental" doesn't make it any less stupid.

That logic would suggest that there's no need for the player to run the base path at all. Just stand at the plate and grin as the ball sails over the fence

It's like the catcher dropping the ball on a third swing and miss. The batter clearly struck out, but the catcher still has to tag them or throw down to first.

 

[volfan102455]

I suspect also that there are many violations during home runs that go unnoticed and unchallenged. You can bet after yesterday's game; there will be a level of focus on that.

 

[volfan102455]

That logic would suggest that there's no need for the player to run the base path at all. Just stand at the plate and grin as the ball sails over the fence

It's like the catcher dropping the ball on a third swing and miss. The batter clearly struck out, but the catcher still has to tag them or throw down to first.

Yes, and if the catcher botches the throw and the runner makes it to first, they are safe even though they struck out. Rules are rules.

And if the player is stupid enough to sit there and watch and the ball bounces off the wall - they now have a one base hit instead of a double or triple. There is a valid reason why the runner should be concentrating on base running until a call is made.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

Correct, and if she'd touched home after rounding 3rd instead of heading straight to the dugout the run would've counted. No one from either team knew the rule apparently.

I think it was more that the ump did a lousy job of announcing the infield fly. Both the runner and the defense both continued on as a live dropped ball.

As far as the run if she tagged home, have to see a replay to see if she went way out of the baseline on her way? My memory, but my DVR replay cut off in the 6th inning. Thought she went outside the coaches box, but that may be a tainted view.

I would for sure be coaching up my defense to let the ball hit, throw in front of the runner for a tag out as they advance at their own risk in this situation.

 

[M40]

This is how we have gotten in this world that rules and laws don’t matter.

Then why write them, if you aren’t going to enforce them.

You and I obviously view the world differently.

Where did I say to not enforce the rules? Now your making stuff up

 

[Ovol]

Watching the UCLA coach in the dugout during the missed plate review, it looked like she was kinda resigned to the fact that her runner was gonna be called out. Anyone else think she looked like that?

 

[creekdipper]

Homeplate=endzone

No endzone no TD…Don’t cross homeplate no run. It’s taught in little league and tee ball

I love the videos of toddlers trying to run the path in tee ball. Their priorities are quite a bit different from the rules.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

You obviously haven’t seen TN sports over the past 15 plus yrs.


I don’t think anyone is out to get us but one has to admit TN athletics is involved in some precarious situations where “calls” go against us.

A recent example is the famous Honcho Vandy call. The rule book has Two distinct rules, one for an illegally modified bat, and one for inspection violation. Modified bat allows for the hit to be taken away, sticker violation does not. They applied the wrong penalty statement. The only recourse for a sticker missing is removal of the bat. I believe that bat was returned to UT and to service after the SERIES, so not modified.

Lost all my backup data with my dead laptop. But bet my position of penalty is still out there as I stated. Unless they changed it after that date to cover their bad.

 

[Ladyvols4ever]

 

[SuzyVol]

Here’s another mind boggling play from this game, the UCLA runner leaving 3rd base on the infield fly that our shortstop missed. If she would have stayed at 3rd base she was safe. That’s not a force play, runners advance at their own risk. It’s just like she was stealing 3rd base and she would have to be tagged to be out. I can’t believe our 3rd baseman didn’t know this and UCLA 3rd base coach not telling her to stay on the bag. She was out because she left the field and went to the dugout. It’s a confusing play that should be practiced by all teams in situational awareness. I’ve seen good high school teams cover this exact situation. Also, An infielder cannot drop an infield fly situation on purpose to get runners to leave the base. I still cant believe that play happened at that level of softball and no one knew the rule with the situation.

I have never heard that a fielder could not intentionally drop an infield fly to induce the runners to leave their bases. The whole purpose of the infield fly rule is to ensure that the runners will not be faced with remaining on base until after the infield fly is dropped, thereby almost guaranteeing a double play; or leaving for the next base before the infield fly is caught, thereby almost guaranteeing a double play. In yesterday's game, it appeared to me that the umpire did call infield fly. I can't say for sure, because I can't hear the announcers. The only runner who could be induced to leave the base after an infield fly is dropped is a runner who doesn't know the rules. As someone else posted, it seems that nobody knew the rule yesterday. The third baseman did not apply a tag, apparently assuming it was a force at third. The runner and third base coach also assumed it was a force.

 

[SuzyVol]

Then every umpire who agreed not to make a call until after review should be removed from the tournament. Their job is to make a call and then be subject to review. Even if the only penalty was a warning, a warning should have been issued. The game continued for two more innings. The warning could have come into play during those two innings.

 

[whobethis16]

I have never heard that a fielder could not intentionally drop an infield fly to induce the runners to leave their bases. The whole purpose of the infield fly rule is to ensure that the runners will not be faced with remaining on base until after the infield fly is dropped, thereby almost guaranteeing a double play; or leaving for the next base before the infield fly is caught, thereby almost guaranteeing a double play. In yesterday's game, it appeared to me that the umpire did call infield fly. I can't say for sure, because I can't hear the announcers. The only runner who could be induced to leave the base after an infield fly is dropped is a runner who doesn't know the rules. As someone else posted, it seems that nobody knew the rule yesterday. The third baseman did not apply a tag, apparently assuming it was a force at third. The runner and third base coach also assumed it was a force.

It's never been allowed to intentionally drop any flyball. Letting it drop untouched is one thing, but intentionally dropping it has never been allowed. That's basic.

 

[SuzyVol]

It's never been allowed to intentionally drop any flyball. Letting it drop untouched is one thing, but intentionally dropping it has never been allowed. That's basic.

I believe that a fielder's allowing the infield fly to fall to earth untouched vs. an infielder's failure to successfully complete the catch of an infield fly (i.e., dropping the infield fly) is a distinction without a difference. All I can add is that in my 74 years I have never heard that failing to successfully catch (intentionally or otherwise) an infield is not allowed. Nor have I ever seen such a distinction addressed in a rule book, though I concede I haven't looked at a rule book in probably forty years. Often, with only first base occupied, an infielder will intentionally fail to catch a fly and force the runner at second base, because he perceives the runner occupying first base as a better baserunner than the batter. The bonus can be a double play if the batter is too lazy or unaware to run to first.