What is the correct call?

[johnnyg08]

Originally Posted by DonInKansas

Is the offending protecting player on the defensive or offensive team. Trying to remember if that matters.......

It does matter...this happened to me this past summer...the offense hit a screamer down the 1b line, probably similar to the OP. However the offense sent a player down the line to shag a foul ball from a previous pitch. The shagger grabs the ball assuming the batted ball to be foul as well.

I immediately killed the play place R1 at 2b and B/R at 1B...My justification was that I was not going to give R1 a free base (3B) because his own player caused the dead ball.

Had this been a defensive player (example: defensive player chasing a ball down the third base line) I would've awarded the bases that they would've reached had the interference not occurred...R1 to 3B, B/R to 2B...

That's how I would've ruled it.

Either way, my understanding is that as soon as somebody else touches the ball who shouldn't be on the field at that time and prevents the defense from making a play...there's got to be a call...

I realize that there's holes in my above post...(neutral ball boy/girl, base coaches, etc..)..but I don't want to type any more.

Who else has thoughts?