Baseball Baseball Running Coaching Points

Hello,
We played today and won 10-1. We had a couple offensive situations that merited discussion in the team meeting after the game.

Situation #1 - Runners at 1 and 2nd, no outs. Batter hits a ground ball to the 5-6 hole. The grounder was medium speed. Our runner was breaking on his ground ball read but ran to close to the 3rd baseman before he stopped. He slide under the 3rd basemans tag, the tag was missed, and the throw to 1st was late. All runners were safe. The point was that our runner could have given the other team an easy double play, if the tag had been made with a follow-up throw to 1st base. Our runner is a speedy kid, he felt he was going to beat the play since the 3rd baseman was going to have to make a play in the hole. The 3rd baseman took a great angle on the play and almost made a super play. Our runners must be more alert and not give the other team a potential double. Stopping and retreating to avoid the tag is the desire base runners action when this occurs.

Situation #2 - We had our lead off batter execute what looked like to be a perfect base hit bunt down the 1st base line. He is right-handed and he pushed the bunt. The play was not even close. Plate umpire called him out for making contact wit a foot down out of the box. I questioned the call, mostly in support of my player, but I was satisfied that the umpire got it right. Point here, our kid started the bunting motion even with the plate and came out of the box. He should have slipped a bit deeper and should not have started so early with the push motion. If he had been a bit more patient, the ball would have gotten deeper, and the bunt would have been legal.

Until, next time, good luck to you and your team. Nick