From what I understood, this was a situation where the ball was not close to hitting the top of the fence, but actually hit well down the fence or even on the ground in front of the fence. This would take the 4 base award out of play because it hit in LBT, then ended up in DBT. (I suspect, given what I've heard of the play), that the ball hit the glove dropped and as the fielder crashed into the fence and collapsed it) the ball was "kicked" over the collapsing fence).
Having seen the players involved on this team, and knowing the umpire, I think he was able to rule on all the appeals. Why? The batter is a rather larger and slow moving individual (he has bit balls to the fence for singles before in my games), who likes to watch his hits fly. It is very possible R2 had rounded 3rd (and missed it) before the batter was close to first, thus giving the PU (1 ump system) a chance to watch the batter miss first base.
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