Why are there two first bases in Kentucky’s SEC baseball tournament games?
When the Kentucky baseball team looks to add an SEC Tournament championship to its regular-season title this week in Hoover, Alabama, the Wildcats will be playing with an experimental rule change.
In an effort to reduce collisions, the Southeastern Conference will use a double first base in its league tournament. A second base, colored green or orange, will be placed in foul territory directly next to the normal first base.
Batters then use the colored base while defenders use the white base for plays at first.
This marks the first time the league has used a double first base in conference games, though the rule has been used in nonconference games involving SEC teams before.
Kentucky opens SEC Tournament play at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday against the winner of LSU and Georgia.
What are the rules for using the double first base?
From the SEC’s news release announcing the rule change:
A batted ball hitting or bounding over the white portion of the bag is a fair ball. A batted ball hitting or bounding over the colored (orange or green) bag without first touching or bounding over the white section is foul.
When an initial play is being made on the batter-runner at first base, the defense must use the white section of the double base and the batter-runner must use the colored base except in the case of a dropped third strike. After a dropped third strike, if the fielder is drawn to the side of the colored base, the runner would go the white base and the fielder to the colored base. On a dropped third strike, the fielder and batter-runner may touch either the white or colored base.
If there is a play on the batter-runner and the batter-runner touches only the white portion of the double base and the defense appeals prior to the batter-runner returning to first base, it is treated the same as missing the base. Penalty: Batter-runner is out.
On extra-base hits or other balls hit to the outfield when there is no chance for a play to be made at the double base, the batter-runner may touch either the white or colored section of the base. Should, however, the batter-runner reach and go beyond first base, they may only return to the white section of the base.
Once the batter-runner reaches first base, they shall then use only the white base.
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