BLU CORNER: Roll Back When a Game is Called Off

9th May 2026 Dan Strayer

NOTE: This article is reprinted from Issue 2, Edition 32 of Bases Loaded. Subscribe to Bases Loaded for your weekly update of news from the Manchester Softball League.

QUESTION: Should the score roll back to the previous inning if a game is called for (e.g.) bad light?

This is not so much a softball rules question, as an issue regarding MSL’s league rules.

Two games last week were called for bad light in the bottom of an inning. In both cases the home team was winning at the time. In one case, call it Game A, the game was called with two outs in the bottom of the 5th inning. In the other, Game B, the call was made after the bottom of the 6th inning had been completed. The question, which relevant members of the Exec grappled with immediately afterwards, is whether the runs scored in the bottom of what turned out to be the final inning in each case, should count.

The first thing to note is that both games qualify as “regulation games.” MSL rule 3.5.13.1, echoing WBSC rule 1.2.1c, states:

“A minimum of five innings must be completed for a result to stand, unless a game is subject to the run-ahead rule after 4 innings.”

A footnote clarifies that

“if the team batting second is ahead after 4½ innings, the game is regulation.”

Of course normally if the home team is winning, the bottom of the final inning is not played out. The rule goes on to say:

“If the team batting second is leading when a game is abandoned, the score will roll back to the point where the winning run was scored, or the middle of the inning if appropriate.”

WSBC rule 1.2.7a states that:

“The score of a called regulation game is the score at the end of the last complete inning unless the home team scores more runs than the visiting team in the bottom half of the incomplete inning. In this case, the score is that of the incomplete inning.”

This makes it clear that if the home team goes ahead in the final inning, the score roles back to that point.

The ruling

The Exec decided that the essential element of the rule was whether the inning had been completed or not. Game A was called with only two outs, so that inning was incomplete. In Game B on the other hand, the call was made following the completion of the 6th inning.

So the incomplete inning in Game A was wiped from the records, while the completed inning in Game B was allowed to stand. A little research revealed that a precedent of allowing the runs scored in the final inning to count had occurred in quite a few games in recent years, though it was unclear if this had applied where innings were incomplete like in our Game A.

The ruling was a little tough on the team in Game A, who nevertheless had the consolation of having still won the game, just by a smaller margin. Fortunately, the number of runs scored plays vey little role in the way we calculate the standings: where teams are equal, it is their head-to-head record that counts, and, apart from early in the season when only a few games have been played, runs scored rarely affects the standings. We look at runs conceded rather than run difference because, unlike timed games like football, it is quite normal for a team to win by one run, with “unused” at-bats.

Coming back to the “roll back” rule, the distinction made in the current ruling between complete and incomplete innings should be added to the rule.

And a final remark. Even if some runs are discounted, the rule states explicitly that: