n a college or pro game, base award mechanics are straightforward. The umpire looks to the lead runner and announces: "You, [pick an ordinal]  base!" Then the umpire looks to the following runners and in turn announces to them: "You, [another ordinal] base!"

"Don't coach!" screamed the skipper

But in an NFHS game, that mechanic might be understood or interpreted as a "coaching" directive from the umpire. Student athletes may not be as advanced as we umpires — or their coaches — might think they are.

Now, it didn't happen to me [ahem], but I recall Rio Vista v. Blum, two, not-so-large schools south of Ft. Worth. On a sultry spring afternoon, the pitcher for Blum comes to bat and launches a 70MPH "fast" ball to right-center. (In real life, he's the starting quarterback, but in small schools the athletes don't specialize.)

There's no outfield fence, so he stops halfway between second and third to see if he's gonna get a home run out of it or just two bases. The umpire was about half way out to the chalk line in the grass when he gave the signal. The ball was still in play; it had not fallen into the creek at the edge of the outfield.

Continued...