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Sidenote to Debeau and softball junky ---
If your interpretation of the rule is correct (and it's not), then if I'm the first baseman, every time I see a ball hit past my outfielders, I'm TACKLING the BR before she reaches first, and hanging on to her for dear life. You two would then not even award her 2B. (And if you claim you'd rule differently because tackling is unsportsmanlike... then I'd get in her way and STAY in her way all the way up the first base line, trying my best to prevent her from ever trying for second base).
I realize that example is absurd - but I use this to make the point that the umpire MUST rule on the base the runner would have achieved without the obstruction, and her subsequent decisions should NEVER be taken into account.
As to the other, more qualified observations, I now feel I missed the boat not awarding her home.
As it turned out, she did not score. And I will never know if it would have mattered, as her team lost in the bottom of the last inning, when the home team scored with 2 outs. Had the runner in our scenario scored, home team would have had to get their runner home from 1st, or we would have been headed to extra innings.
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