Ask UEFL - Replay Upholds Fair Ball to End Little League Game Despite Umpire's Foul Ball Signal

Quite a few of you asked us to review the Little League World Series' Northwest Region championship after a game-ending fair/foul play at third base. Article: https://www.closecallsports.com/2022/... Twitter:   / closecallsports   Discord:   / discord   With one out and one on (R1) in the bottom of the 7th inning (extra innings for Little League that plays six-inning games), Washington's batter hit a ground ball along the third baseline, past third base, signaled foul by the 3B Umpire. However, the home plate umpire apparently signaled the ball fair and the offense continued running the bases, R1 scoring the winning run from first base. This play, reviewable under Little League standards, ultimately stood and Washington claimed the win and regional championship. In Little League, most volunteer umpires (unpaid per LL rules) officiate games in one-, two-, or potentially three-person crews throughout the regular season. In LLWS tournaments, the crews get bumped up to four—or six at Williamsport. Four/six is a crew size most Little League umpires do not have regular experience with, so sometimes coverage responsibilities get a bit confusing because the expectations for mechanics are different in larger crews. For this play, we begin with a runner on first base. Under a one or two person crew, the plate umpire has calling responsibility for all fair/foul decisions at or beyond third base, in all situations. For a crew of three, the plate umpire has calling responsibility for all fair/foul decisions at or beyond third base when play begins with a runner on first base only. Thus, for the standard Little League volunteer umpire, any batted ball hit to third base in this situation will require them to make a call. However, when a crew of four or six takes the field, the plate umpire no longer has primary calling responsibility for any fair/foul call at or beyond the front edge of third base: that becomes the third base umpire's call (it's also the third base umpire's call in any crew of three in which U3 begins play on the left field foul line). Umpires can hope to avoid double-calls like this (in this situation, the home plate and third base umpire's calls apparently conflicted; the rules state that the umpires may elect to choose either one of these calls based on what was most likely correct, and in which case play shall proceed as if only the final decision had been made [e.g., Official Baseball Rule 8.04(c)]). Thus, the umpires selected the fair ball call to prevail, and Replay Review upheld this call, meaning that with only reference to a fair ball call having been made, the decision to score the run stood, effectively ending the game.