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Maryland Public Schools play NFHS Baseball Rules and include 4-2-2 10 run Mercy rule. Does the game end immediately when the home team takes 10 run lead after 4 1/2+ innings or does play continue until the play is dead? Here's the situation. Home team already has 9 run lead with bases loaded and 0 outs in b-5th. Next home team batter singles into center field with runner from 3rd base easily scoring and the runner on 2nd base also heads towards home plate. The instinct of the defense is to throw home, but the runner who started at 2nd base also scores safely. Is the final score 10-0 or 11-0?

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The game ends on the mercy rule the same way it ends in a regulation game. The only difference is the regulation length isn’t reached. If the home team is batting, think of it as though it were the bottom of the last inning.

 

What often happens is scorers and/or coaches will allow the continued play. I had one the other day where the run tripping the mercy rule was on 2nd and the batter ripped a ball into the gap. The runner on 2nd was a slug and the batter was a rocket. The batter reached 2nd long before the runner reached the plate and would easily have a stand up triple or perhaps even an inside the park HR. Unfortunately for him, all I could credit him with was a double because of the following.

 

[b]OBR 9.06(f ) Subject to the provisions of Rule 9.06 (g) (Rule 10.06(g)), when a batter ends a game with a safe hit that drives in as many runs as are necessary to put his team in the lead, the official scorer shall credit such batter with only as many bases on his hit as are advanced by the runner who scores the winning run, and then only if the batter runs out his hit for as many bases as are advanced by the runner who scores the winning run.[/b]

As usual Stats nails the scoring angle.

 As an umpire, I am waiting for the action to be relaxed. The hit may have scored the winning run, but I do have responsibilities that require me to see it to the end. The touch of all bases and any possible appeal keep me engaged to the end of the action.

As a player or coach it wouldn't be very obvious that we are continuing our duties. This occurs very quickly.  Once I'm satisfied, I return the gamers to the home team, wait for my partner and exit.   

But from the scoring angle, I often read accounts of games I officiated where the scoring does not resemble the game I participated. There are many fine scorekeepers, but many times the book is handled by multiple people through out the game.  

The most often differences reported FC's reported as hits, errors reported as hits, saves and wins reported incorrectly. In the long run, it makes no difference, but it calls into question the validity of many HS stats. I always feel bad for the schools that have excellent scorekeepers that are continually pestered by parents "in between innings" lobbying for a favorable ruling.

One of my favorite is an old HS Phys Ed instructor, who stays in the press box prooving  the scorecard, well after the crowd leaves just to avoid the parents. But his accounts in the paper always match the game I officiated.

Last edited by piaa_ump

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