Baseball Abandonment Issues During a Home Run - Reviewing The Auto-Out Rule with an NCAA Example

We were asked about an abandonment (runner out) call in a recent Texas Tech vs Kansas NCAA game, so here is a presentation of baseball's abandonment rule. Article: https://www.closecallsports.com/2022/...

Texas Tech batter Sam Hunt hit a fly ball to deep center field, where Kansas CF Sergio Rivera jumped to try and catch it. Although the ball cleared the wall (and was signaled a home run by the 2B Umpire), the batter-runner nonethless peeled off from path second base and headed back toward his third base dugout, drawing an out call from the 3B Umpire for abandonment (not to be confused with out of the base path...that's literally an impossible call in a dead ball situation such as this one since the runner is not avoiding a fielder's tag attempt).

NCAA's Rule 2-1 defines abandonment as "the act of any runner who leaves the base path, after reaching first base, heading for their dugout or defensive position believing there is no further play."

OBR, NCAA, and NFHS are nearly identical in administering and enforcing the abandonment-out rule. For example, Official Baseball Rule (MLB/pro) 5.09(b)(2) states any runner is out when—"After touching first base, they leave the base path, obviously abandoning their effort to touch the next base."

NFHS has a minor difference from OBR/NCAA here, because NFHS uses "baseline" (direct line between the bases) whereas the higher levels' language is "base path" (line from runner to the base attempting to reach safely).

Which actually makes high school federation a slightly easier ruling, but nonetheless, when the umpire judges the runner to have given up on running the bases, abandonment may be called when that runner leaves their path (or line for NFHS), "obviously abandoning their effort to touch the next base."

No tag is required, no appeal necessary: This is an automatic and immediate out that can occur during a live or during a dead ball. A runner cannot go back and correct their abandonment after the umpire calls the runner out for abandonment.