In the end, the ump has final say. Hopefully, he calls it the same way consistently. From the description I read, it sounds like I would have ruled the contact malicious. I include in my definition of malicious the careless disregard for another's safety.

We only hear one side. I've seen situations where the bigger boy is penalized because he is big -- even though he tried to put on the brakes he may have accidentally contacted the catcher. Then again the catcher may have been up the line and the runner was too far to slide, so he crashed.

I once ejected a boy for putting a shoulder into a bigger boy. The runner bounced off the catcher, but I ruled on the intent and not who won the crash.