Faking an injury to get a pinch runner when using Continuous Batting Order
Was doing Bases for a Little League minors end of season tournament with Continuous Batting Order yesterday. Final inning, losing team is up to bat, Batter walks on 4 straight balls, which brings us to R1 and R2. Immediately the coach waves R1 over and brings out a sub for him. PU starts having a conversation with the coach then beckons me in for a rules discussion (he's more of a vibes umpire than a rules umpire). I clarify the Little League pinch runner rules for PU (No pinch runners with CBO, courtesy runners or injured player subs are allowed, sub should be the last runner put out).
PU turns back and tells the coach the sub is fine if the kid is injured and the coach says "Oh yeah, he's injured". The opposing coach immediately interjects "really, he's injured? you really want to win this way?" but it all quiets down and we move on.
The implication is this kid was not injured, and to be frank, I don't see how he could have gotten injured on his casual stroll to 1B so I'm inclined to believe he was fully healthy. Strategically though I can't see why someone would want a pinch runner for the trailing runner in an R1/R2 situation. Since I joined the conversation so late I think I missed most of the story, I have no idea if they claimed the kid was injured before PU informed them that would make what they were doing legal. I kind of stayed out of it beside bringing rulebook info.
Anyway, the pinch runner never scored and they ended up losing so it didn't really impact the result.
I am however left wondering, how do you determine if a coach is faking an injury for their kid to get a pinch runner? It feels wrong to just accept the coach's claim when its as fishy as this example, but I can't think of any way to investigate without grilling the kid. Little League minors though, so the "injury" could just be he was too nervous to be on base in a high stakes situation.
Anyone have some successful strategies for navigating similar situations?