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Originally Posted by LMan
The rule cite above (at least in hardball) refers to batter interference on a caught pitch, NOT a mishandled pitch that goes behind the catcher. Current interps stress that once a pitch eludes the catcher and becomes a wild pitch/passed ball, the standard for calling interference on the batter is increased significantly since the defense has already muffed the play.
IMO in this sitch (HTBT, as always) if the catcher is chasing a passed ball all over the backstop area and then comes up firing to 3B, the batter must be doing something blatant/overt to get a INT call, and here she apparently was doing her best to avoid. You cant expect the batter to predict where this bouncing ball is going and when the catcher is finally going to corral it.
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To be clear; that interp is 100% wrong in all softball based rule sets. Absent a play at the plate, the batter is expected to remain in the batter's box, which is the one place where the batter can be called for interference only if it is intentional (blatant or overt). If the batter chooses to vacate the batter's box, it is done at full risk of potentially interfering, and whether intentional or not, it is ruled interference.