Quote:
Originally posted by t2nyval
I umpire Little League 9-10 in Ohio. Tonight there were 2 situations I wasn't completely sure of. Your clarification will help.
1) Infield fly that is not caught or touched, it hits the ground. R1 stays put. R2 leaves early and the base is tagged by a fielder who picked up the ball...he's out, thats easy. R3 waits for the ball to hit the ground and goes home. I call him safe. Did I make the right call on R3 or is the ball dead if noone catches it or touches it?
2) Bases loaded: Dribbler hit to F3, he fields it and he and BR collide at first with BR being called out. The collision causes the ball to fly about 20 feet away. All 3 runners who were on base score. I called them safe, Coach wanted runner interference called. What about this call? Thank you in advance.
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Answer to
Situation 1)
ON an infield fly situation the batter is automatically out thus there is no force siutation. Since there is no force and the the ball was dropped, R2 is not out unless he is tagged while off the base. Touching third base on an infield fly will not count as an out since you never have a force situation on an infield fly rule.
In short, the ball is always alive on an infield fly. The batter is out and R3 is safe. You made the wrong call on R2(unless there is some penalty in little league for leaving a bag to soon. I am giving you the Fed interpretation) who should be safe at second unless he was tagged while off the base. If the ball were caught and B2 didn't tag up then he could be called out if a fielder with the ball gets to second base before B2
Situation 2)
If the batter runner runs outside the 3ft running lane (last half of the distance from home plate to first base), while the ball is being fielded or thrown to first base, you have interference and all runners return to the base at the time of the pitch. A batter-runner is considered outside the running lane lines if either foot is outside either line. The coach may have been right if the batter runner was running in fair territory. If he was running in his designated running path you probably have just a collision and the play stands. It all depends on where the batter runner was at at the time of the collision.
I'm also curious if the batter runner has to have one foot completely outside of the 3ft lane to be considered as running outside of the base path or would only one foot partially outside of the running lane be considered as running out of the base path?
[Edited by Gre144 on Jul 17th, 2001 at 02:40 AM]