Any flinch of the body or any deviation from the normal wind up
The official baseball rule book defines a balk as βan illegal act by the pitcher with a runner or runners on base, entitling all runners to advance one base.
A bauck is an illegal move by the pitcher which throws off the runner. If an umpire catcher a pitcher doing an illegal move, all runners on base move forward one base.
I am very familiar with ISA, ASA, and College Softball rules and I have NEVER heard of a balk being called in softball, the main reason for this is runners cannot leave the base until the delivery of the pitch, so their is no "checking on the runner" or "throw overs" or "pick offs" like there is in baseball. Now Softball does have "Illegal pitches" and this is a very easy call to make --- Illegal Pitches: - dropping the ball in your back windup - separating the hands - not being in contact with the rubber and accepting signals - crow hopping or lifting your drag foot ---- these will be indicated by the umpire shouting "ILLEGAL" -- from there the batter will make the decision to swing if they want.. after play the coach gets to decide if they want the result of the play or take the penalty -- add a ball to the count and runners move up a base --------tigersy2k3
When a pitcher bulks he does an illegal pick-off move. All the runners on base advance a base when a bulk is call. The actual term for this scoring situation in baseball is actually "balk," not "bulk."
A wild pitch is one that bounces before reaching the catcher that he cannot stop or a pitch that is beyond his normal reach. Most times these pitches go behind him or to his side allowing base runners to advance. A passed ball is a pitch that is mishandled by the catcher and normally goes behind him or to his side. Base runners may advance on these also.
The base runner is out that got hit with the ball as long as he is in fair territory. At this point the ball is considered dead and the runners would go to the base they should be at. Example: Runners at 1st and 2nd. Guy on 2nd running toward 3rd after ball is hit, he is hit. He is out. Runner at 1st is awarded 2nd, batter is awarded 1st and the ball is dead.
When runners are on base, pitchers generally tend to pitch out of the stretch, meaning that they shorten the time it takes to prepare and throw a pitch. This is done to prevent base runners from stealing base. When there are no runners on base, pitchers tend to pitch out of the wind up.
A balk is defined as "Any motion made by the pitcher to deliver the ball to the bat without delivering it." The penalty for a pitcher balking is for any baserunners to advance one base.
If you are referring to runners already on base, then that runner is considered out because of interference with the ball that was in play.Clarification:Above answer refers to a batted ball that was not touched by a defensive player first. In a situation where a thrown ball or a deflected ball gets stuck in a offensive player's (runner's) jersey then it is a dead ball. The runners will get to advance to the base they are going to and then the play is over
in baseball and softball it means theres runners on every base
batter is out, runners do not advance
Generally, only when there are no runners on base. However, you could also pitch from the windup when there is a runner only on third base, or on 2nd and 3rd, or when the bases are loaded. Pitching from the windup can be a problem with a runner on third because this will allow the runner to get a longer lead off the base than the lead the runner will get when the pitcher pitches from the stretch.