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SEC to experiment with ‘double first base’ in SEC Baseball Tournament

Andrew Olson

By Andrew Olson

Published:

The baseball diamond will look a bit different this week in Hoover, Alabama.

The SEC announced Monday that it is implementing the use of “double first base” on an experimental basis in the conference tournament. The goal is to reduce collisions at first base between the defender and the batter-runner.

The conference shared a rundown of the rules with the “double first base” in use. The most notable change is that defenders use the white portion of the bag when batter-runners touch the colored bag. There are exceptions on dropped third strikes.

The batter-runner is allowed to use either portion of the base when there will not be a play at the bag, such as an extra-base hit on a ball hit to the outfield.

Once a batter is aboard first base, he will use the white bag.

Here are the official guidelines, provided by the SEC:

  • A batted ball hitting or bounding over the white portion of the bag is a fair ball. A batted ball hitting or bounding over the colored (orange or green) bag without first touching or bounding over the white section is foul.
  • When an initial play is being made on the batter-runner at first base, the defense must use the white section of the double base and the batter-runner must use the colored base except in the case of a dropped third strike. After a dropped third strike, if the fielder is drawn to the side of the colored base, the runner would go the white base and the fielder to the colored base. On a dropped third strike, the fielder and batter-runner may touch either the white or colored base.
  • If there is a play on the batter-runner and the batter-runner touches only the white portion of the double base and the defense appeals prior to the batter-runner returning to first base, it is treated the same as missing the base. Penalty:  Batter-runner is out.
  • On extra-base hits or other balls hit to the outfield when there is no chance for a play to be made at the double base, the batter-runner may touch either the white or colored section of the base. Should, however, the batter-runner reach and go beyond first base, they may only return to the white section of the base.
  • Once the batter-runner reaches first base, they shall then use only the white base.

The SEC Tournament begins Tuesday with 4 single-elimination games. The first game between 6-seed Georgia and 11-seed LSU is set for 10:30 a.m. ET, airing on the SEC Network.

 

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.

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