Lack of Proper Equipment

[cbfoulds]

ddd:
My $0.02:
In the unlikely event that a HS team has only one set of catcher gear AND the other team won't help out, well, the game can't continue. Make your notes, file your report & let higher authority sort things out.

You DO NOT have the authority to force the other team to share.
Absent a specific rule about the equipment, you DO NOT have the authority to impose "safety" standards which are not in the book.

9.01c & it's FED equivalent are not license to invent rules simply because the book does not say what you think it should.

If F2's shin guards don't have instep plates, not your problem. The book does not require them. FWIW, before anyone goes OOO about F2's instep, you may want to consider that F2's feet are a deal less likely to get bashed by the ball than the PU's, simply because of the difference in location and stance.
Further, those dangle plates can be a real nuisance: I cut the instep shields off my West shin guards because I sounded like something out of "I, Robot" [ CLANK, step, step, CLANK, CLANK]every time I tried to run in them, and they kept jabbing into my shoe & tripping me up.