question???

[JRSooner]

Yesterday at my sons JV game there was a call made that not anyone was sure about. OK, here goes, the pitcher pitched the ball, the batter hit a hard-hit grounder back at the pitcher, and it hits him in his right shin, and it bounds towards third base where our runner runs into it, and no, it hadn't past the third baseman yet. The umpire let all runners stay on their bases, making it bases loaded, with still 2 outs. I'm not sure on the ruling, what it should be, or why he called it the way he did, it did help us out though as the next batter hit a triple and knocked all the runs in, but I felt like he made the wrong call. What do y'all think? We have a couple of dads who ump youth league ball and they thought that maybe he called it that way because(1)after it hit the P and started rolling towards third it slowed it down so much that the 3B wouldn't have had a chance to make a play at any base anyway, or (2)that he considered the P as making an attempt to field the ball when it hit his shin and since it touched him while doing so, it no longer mattered if it hit our runner, or (3)if it only mattered if a runner was hit by a batted ball and since it touched a fielder first it no longer had to be avoided by our runner. Thanks in advance for your input.

[greymule]

You have described a deflected ball. Unless the runner is judged to have interfered with the ball deliberately, no interference is called, the ball remains live, and whatever happens, happens. The play stands. The umpires made the correct call.

(That's OBR anyway. I assume it's the same in Fed.)

[Rich]

This is what Evans has to say:

When a ball is deflected by an infielder (including pitcher) and a runner is touched by the ball, the runner should never be called out unless he intentionally interferes with the deflected ball (regardless of whether another infielder had a legitimate play or not).

--Rich

[mcrowder]

Sounds like your blue put the runners back though. What happened after the ball hit your runner - did he return to 3rd? If so, blue made the right call.

[JRSooner]

Our runner was hit while running from 2B to 3B, so he the ball was live, and our runners stayed on the bases that they had gone to.

[bob jenkins]

Originally posted by mcrowder
Sounds like your blue put the runners back though. What happened after the ball hit your runner - did he return to 3rd? If so, blue made the right call.

Not true -- the ball remains live and any play (outs, advances) stands -- no one need return.