Ball needs an eye exam. (Henry Cooke too). There is no way this is Ethan Ball's first time on base for a fly out. He must have thought he saw the CF catch it when he took off. After the play he has to be arguing he didn't leave early. There is no way Szefc would challenge if Ball is explaining why he doesn't have to stay on the base until the ball is caught. Having said that, the replay sure looks like he didn't know the rule. He was staring at the CF the whole time before he takes off.

Of the ball. I think he wasn’t sure if the ball would drop or not and he stayed off the base for a while, then he realized late that it was going to be caught so he hastily went to tag up and either 1) took his eye off the ball/fielder briefly while he was tagging then guessed on when it was caught or 2) could have lost the ball in the sun and thought the defender caught it when he hadn’t yet. The fact that he went back to the bag at all confirms he knows the rule but I think he legitimately lost track of the ball but then “guessed” at when he caught it and then when he was called out, he questioned the result because he was either embarrassed he lost track of the ball in a high pressure situation or he legitimately thought he saw him catch it when he didn’t.

does not have this knowledge from yrs of playing...how many coaches missed the opportunity to teach and clarify... Does our staff have some responsibility - sure, I guess - but boy you would not think you have to cover the basics... Tagging up on a fly ball (waiting till it touches the fielder anywhere) is a simple one learned in LL... Today the locker room ought to be discussing: Can you run on a drop third strike from home? Yes but when? Whats a balk? Whats and Infield fly? What constitutes running out of the baseline to avoid a tag? What portion of the 1st base bag is the runners on bang bang play at 1st? Is the hand part of the bat when considering a HBP? When does a run count on a third out? Explain batter, catcher, runner interference clearly?! Explain obstruction clearly? These should be test questions pre-season for real - but I'd go ahead and put the quiz out now for this year! Go Hokies! Win another series!

Started playing travel at 8. Where very few coaches teach fundamentals. I had a conversation with my sons first travel coach (at 12) asking to have dome time at practice (I was supposed to be an assistant) to teach the middle infielders how to take cutoffs, hold runners on, take a throw from the catcher, etc. because they were clueless. He told me they should already know that. But they didn’t and we were the coaches. How else would they learn?

That tagging up requires you to wait for the fielder to catch the ball before you try to run to the next base….which he didn’t. He then complained to the ump about it….he clearly didn’t understand the rules regarding tagging up. This was on top of a few other head scratchers which occurred during the game. Not a fundamentally sound team, but so GLAD we won. Shocked we did actually ** Edited by Irish Hokie at 3/22/2026, 9:37:40 PM ** Edited by Irish Hokie at 3/22/2026, 9:39:26 PM

Didn’t see it but my understanding is that runner on 2nd failed to tag up properly on a fly ball to the outfield. He hit a double as lead off batter so was on second with no outs but ran himself into a double play. Next batter hit another fly ball which would have scored him from 3rd but ended the bottom of the 9th instead.

He did tag up but left way too early heading to 3B. I’ve seen numerous HS players do this. You just use it as coaching point for the whole team. You could see him tell 3B coach “But I did tag up”. 3B coach looked away. This player, freshman, was #2 overall recruit from Va. he should know better.