[DonT]

I had a situation where the batter (U12) after hitting was rounding third a throw was made to the third baseman to makea play. The ball deflected off the thidbaseman's glove and into the thirdbase coach's back. The coach turned away from the the deflection. The ball stayed in play and the runner scored. The umpire made the decision that it was interference and called the runner back to third. Homerun denied!!! I wrongly argued (not loudly) that the coach had protection in the box. I still believe there was no interference due to the fact an attempt was made to (as fast a a 46 year old can move) to get out of the way and that it did not impeded the fielder attempt to get the missed ball. There was no intential move to touch the ball or to block the fielder and the ball did not land near the coach.

Opinion please.


Exert from rules:

The question of intentional or unintentional interference shall be decided on the basis of the person's action. For example: a bat boy, ball attendant, policeman, etc., who tries to avoid being touched by a thrown or batted ball but still is touched by the ball would be involved in unintentional interference. If, however, he kicks the ball or picks it up or pushes it, that is considered intentional interference, regardless of what his thought may have been.
PLAY: Batter hits ball to shortstop, who fields ball but throws wild past first baseman. The offensive coach at first base, to avoid being hit by the ball, falls to the ground and the first baseman on his way to retrieve the wild thrown ball, runs into the coach; the batter runner finally ends up on third base. The question is asked whether the umpire should call interference on the part of the coach. This would be up to the judgment of the umpire and if the umpire felt that the coach did all he could to avoid interfering with the play, no interference need be called. If it appeared to the umpire that the coach was obviously just making it appear he was trying not to interfere, the umpire should rule interference.