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Old Sun May 01, 2011, 09:08pm
Dave Reed Dave Reed is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 329
The text of the NCAA rule is different and is ambiguous.
8-5:
j. The individual fails to reach the next base before a fielder tags the runner or the base after the runner has been forced to advance because the batter became a runner;
Exception—No runner can be forced out if a runner who follows in the batting order is put out first. However, if a runner is put out during live action, it does not remove the force on any runners who might subsequently be declared out for a running infraction.
A.R. 1—No run may score on any play when the third out is either a force out or the result of a batter-runner’s failure to reach first base safely.


I've bolded the part that Referee Magazine is probably basing its opinion on.

I believe, but have no way to prove, that the bolded part is intended to apply to situations very similar to the OP.
Bases loaded, B/R is safe at first, attempts briefly to reach second and is tagged out. In this case R2 is still forced to third because B/R was safe at first. So the appeal is of a force out which is the third out.

If my surmise is correct, the the bolded part is really only a clarification, and the same ruling is implicit in the other rule codes. But Referee Magazine probably took the bolded sentence literally and ignored the contradiction to both the preceding sentence and to baseball common sense.
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