Quote:
Originally posted by busher63
Mens slow pitch softball, church 'D' level. Runners on first and second. Batter hits a ground ball to third base. Thirdbaseman misplays the ball, "boots it". While trying to recover the ball, the and runner 2, who is moving toward third, collide. If the ball had been fielded cleanly, IMO, no contact would have been made. I made a "no call" and the runner was eventualy tagged out as he and the thirdbaseman scrambled around on the ground. The home plate umpire said that the runner should have been out for interfearance, but that he did not see the third baseman boot the ball. We have a 50/50 split in our association about the right call. Can anyone shed some light on this?
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First off, welcome to the board.
Too many things I would have to see prior to ruling on this play. Did F5 still have the opportunity to make an out if there was no collision? Was R1 attempting to avoid the interference when the fielder goes for the ball? Was this action in front of or behind the original point of the fielder's contact with the ball? Remember, the ball retains the status of "batted ball" or "thrown ball" until someone actually fields or catches that ball or it enters DBT.
There is nothing in the rules about the rules being suspended just because someone did not take advantage of an initial opportunity without something else occuring.