NFHS BR/RL Inter
 

National Federation of High School Rules

r2 and r3
Less than two outs

Batter performs a "safety squeeze" and bunts the ball up the first base line.

Ball is 6" FOUL and as F1 bends over to knock it "further foul" but has not touched the ball(i.e. touching ball foul so it won't roll back to fair ground) the BR runs into him.

You make the call!

Regards,

Besides "FOUL," what call would anyone actually want to make?

If the ball had no chance of becoming fair, it's FOUL.

If it did have a chance to roll fair, it's INT.

Where did the ball end up?

This sounds correct, but I have found no FED rule or case book play on it. Closest thing is 8-4-1d, which is talking about contacting a batted ball in foul territory with the bat while it has a chance of becoming fair. The definition of Offensive Interference would make it illegal to contact a fielder making a play on a ball, but there is no play to be made on a foul ball. 10-2-3g might have to be applied here to declare the batter out, and all runners return to base at TOI.

I would have be CERTAIN that the ball had a chance to become fair, ie rolling towards fair with enough roll to make it there to make this call.

That was my point DG about where did the ball end up. Like you said you'd better be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN the ball will end up fair before you make an int call. As the sitch said the ball was never touched you'd have to wait until it stopped or was touched.

I agree that it *makes sense* to look at where the ball ends up, but offensive interference is not a delayed dead ball situation. Theoretically, the call would need to be made immediately, so what happens after that point would be irrelevant. Having said that, I still don't have a better solution. Personally, I've probably got a foul ball. :)

How about ... Malicious contact. Out and out! Runners return. Eh?

You have a very dark sense of humor, don't you?:cool: