Can forced runner retreat along baseline?

[celebur]

Originally Posted by greymule

Frazz, there is a rule in softball that the batter-runner, between home and 1B, cannot "step backward to avoid or delay a tag." It's considered interference. The BR is out and all runners return to the last base touched at the time of the interference. Maybe that's the root of some of the confusion.

That was my initial thought too. That rule is also sometimes misunderstood by players (and apparently some local umpires) to apply to all runners in force situations. I've had it come up twice this year alone where the defense was sure the forced runner should be out for simply retreating to their base to delay a tag.

So I could see that both the correct and misunderstood softball rule could easily confuse some umpires doing both games. But Frazz, even in softball, the runner in the OP did nothing wrong.