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Brain Teaser
A friend forwarded this to me as a baseball rules brain teaser. Rule on the play as if it had occurred in an MLB game.
Obviously, this is purely an academic question but it's kind of fun to unravel.
I have worked my way through this play and arrived at a ruling that I think is correct, but I would be interested in some of your solutions.
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Situation: Runners on 2nd and 3rd, no outs. New batter who is right-handed.
Play: As the pitcher begins his wind-up, both runners takeoff running. The suicide squeeze is on! Startled, the pitcher hesitates during his wind-up. The umpire points at him and says, "That's a balk!" but the pitcher delivers the ball anyway. The batter squares around to bunt. The catcher, in his eagerness to tag out the runner advancing toward home, moves forward, out of his crouch, and makes contact with the batter. Nonetheless, the batter manages to bunt the ball on the ground only about 8-feet out in front of the plate. As the catcher attempts to pursue the batted ball he gets tangled up with the batter who, simulataneously, is trying to advance toward 1st. The catcher is trying to get the ball and the batter is trying to get to 1st. The contact occurs in the area immediately out in front of the plate. The catcher manages to pick up the ball but there is no hope in tagging out the scoring runner. He attempts to the throw the batter out at 1st but his throw hits the batter-runner in the helmet while he has one foot in and one foot out of the running lane. Everybody is safe. One run has scored. The runner who was originally on 2nd ends up on 3rd.
YOU MAKE THE CALL!
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