Dead Balls and Courtesy Steps

Question
This situation occured during a Men's Slow Pitch game between the 2 top teams in the league who were both undefeated going into the game.  There were runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs.  The batter faced a full count.  The next pitch was a ball, granting the batter a walk.  After the ball landed and hit dirt and the pitch was called a ball, the runner at 2nd base took 2 steps towards 3rd (basically walking to 3rd base with no intentions of sprinting) under the assumption that he thought the bases were loaded.  Once he realized there was no one on 1st base he returned to 2nd base.  Immediately the fielders yelled out, "HE'S OFF THE BASE."  The umpire hesitated and after a few other fielders yelled out, "HE'S OUT FOR LEAVING THE BASE," the umpire called the runner out.  The league follows all ASA rules, with one of the rules being no courtesy step.  The batter never attempted to fake a swing at the pitch or did not attempt in any other way to make it seem like he could be swinging.  Is the runner out and the inning is over?  Or is the runner allowed back to second safely because the situation is a dead ball after the ball hit the ground and the walk was issued?

Answer
Hi Ryan,

I can only give you ASA rules that state a runner may leave the base in SP as soon as the pitch reaches hp, is batted or hits the ground.  I have no idea what your local "courtesy steps" are.

In SP w/out stealing ball 4 is a dead ball, you can step off the base during a dead ball.

So these local so called "cs" come into play.  Your LD needs to provide a written explanation of them.


Mark