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© Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
I was on first, and we had a runner on third. The batter hit a high pop fly to the shortstop. I tagged up, and when the shortstop caught the ball, I ran to second. The shortstop looked the runner back to third, and heard people yelling for him to throw to second. He overthrew second, and I made it to third.
Although I did that on the spur of the moment, the inspiration for the play was when runners are on first and third, and the guy on first steals second, because a throw to second will probably score the runner from third. Often, the catcher won't even throw to second. I saw a catcher who would heave the ball to the pitcher, and if the runner on third thought that the throw was going to second, they would catch him off the bag.
Anyway, my play was enhanced by the novelty of the situation (the shortstop, may be disoriented after tracking down a pop fly), and the fact that tags are difficult in softball (which rewards aggressive running). The pop fly doesn't even have to be very high. A line drive might do it.
A teammate of mine hit a single. And before the next batter was done batting, he got in three rundowns, and scored.
In Vietnam, I got four bases on one error. I hit a high, long pop fly to center field. I was rounding second, when the fielder dropped the fly.