Rules question re: Rice game call

[accuratehorn]

So the umpire missed the call on the catch in the outfield, and then corrected that call to an out. The runner on second took off when the ump ruled the play a hit, and the runner scored. The runner did nothing wrong.
After the call was changed, is it correct to still allow the run? What is the rule in this case? Had the correct call been made, the runner could have gone back to second and tagged up, going to third, so it wouldn't have been fair to just call the play dead at the point the ball was caught.
The umps got out of the pickle by ruling the runner tagged up, which was a total fabrication, but it did solve their screw-up.

 

[Barton Hills]

1300 AM replayed the call from last night ... Craig/Keith were both livid, and Keith stated it was the worst blown call he's seen in his 13 years of covering college baseball.

They agreed that worst case, the runner should have been sent back to 2nd base.

 

[gardere_owns_OU]

the webcast wasn't the greatest and our angle sucked.. everything was too fluid for him to not have caught the ball. the crew really blew that call and was huge for the Owls.

regardless, we lost the game with bases loaded and no outs and manged to bring in just one run. terrible!

 

[texduncan]

We've been discussing it at length over on the Rice board. There's still debate as to what the correct call would have been. The NCAA rulebook has an appendix called "getting the call right" which reads, in relevant part:

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[Endust]

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[accuratehorn]

Thanks, texduncan, for posting the relevant rule. That is really a Catch 22. There were two conflicting calls, and no good way to resolve it.
So the umpires would either have to insist the fly ball was not caught, sticking with the original call, which would have allowed the run to score and the batter to reach first safely, or call a double play, on which the runner advanced after seeing the umpire rule a no-catch in the outfield, or call a double-play on the catch and the no-tag-up rule.
There appears to be no mechanism to make up for the incorrect original call of no-catch, which in my opinion would have resulted in the runner on second tagging up and reaching third. The umpires didn't feel it was fair to send him back to second, so they ruled he tagged up and reached home, which as it turned out would have been the result of the play anyhow (since subsequent batters reached base).
You have to realize these guys are human and make mistakes, and they want the calls to be as correct as possible. They had to create a call to make-up for what happened originally, when one umpire missed the catch of the fly ball. Interesting situation, never seen that before.

 

[texduncan]

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