CWS Championship Game One
 

Monday night, late in the game, a Georgia runner was coming in to score. His slide was really late (his butt did not hit the ground until his feet were past the plate), and it appeared he was going to try to knock the ball lose. It didn't matter as the throw never got to the catcher, but....

If the throw had not hit the runner, and the catcher was waiting with the ball, could that have been malicious contact? I tried to find a highlight that showed the contact from 3B extended, but the only shots I could find were from behind the plate. Those shots show the lateness of the slide, but the 3B extended replay Monday night, at least to me, showed the runner was trying to initiate contact to knock the ball loose.

Did anyone else see it the way I did?

I saw the play you are talking about. I would not have malicious contact on the runner, but I probably would have issued some friendly advice to him about being more timely his decision to slide or not to slide.

I did not see the play. In non-pro ball, the runner may not deliberately crash into F2 in order to jar the ball loose. Depending on the severity and how it's done (with the hands, shoulder, raised foot, etc.) it could be INT, MC, both or neither.

1. Legal slide, F2 puts tag down, ball comes loose after incidental contact with sliding foot: I've got nothing.

2. Runner slides, tag is high, runner slaps F2's glove, ball comes out: INT, runner out, other runners return to TOI base.

3. Runner slides into F2 with spikes up to kick the glove, F2 holds ball and makes the tag: MC, runner out on tag and ejected.

4. Runner crashes F2 who drops ball: MC & INT, runner ejected for MC, out on INT, other runners return to TOI base.

Note that in NCAA, the runner is allowed to try for the plate, even if the collision is hard.

CWS Final Game 2 Score 17-10
 

Damn those aluminum bats were hard on the ball.

I saw one of those in a Regional game. Out was the call because the catcher held on. In a HS game I would have called MC, but in this game a no call was appropriate.