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Originally posted by Dakota
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Perhaps the runner's actions were as innocent as you believe them to be. Nonetheless, you are doing the game no favor if you allow this kind of baserunning to slide by without proper rules enforcement. The coaches and the players need to learn that, whether or not the defender had the ball (i.e. irrelevant to the interference call), intentional crashing into a defender is USC, and will result in ejection. It is a safety rule. It needs to be enforced, not ignored because the umpire is afraid of hurting the player's feelings.
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Tom & Mike,
Perhaps you're right. I wasn't trying to start a debate over whether or not an ejection was warranted. Maybe is was. I absolutely agree that crashing into a defender (with or without the ball) is a safety issue. I explained that to the coach when I ruled the runner out. On this play (in my judgement) I felt that there was no malicious intent on the part of this 9 or 10 year old runner. That is why I didn't eject her. Now had this been an older kid I probably would have ejected her. I just think that we don't have to be quick on the draw to sit a player down unless we determine it necessary based on the situation. Like most plays described on this board this is probably a HTBT situation. If you would have seen the play, maybe you would agree with my ruling.