Inattentive Runner - Collision

[MD Longhorn]

The runner is on his way to third (oblivious of the play developing in front of him) and as the fielder is rising up to make the tag the runner plows into him

That's what OP said. "oblivious of the play in front of him", to me, sounds like a deep lack of awareness. I'm not sure we should take the "plows into him" to mean that the poster did not mean what he said in the rest of the sentence. Heck ... I "plowed into" my 7-year old daughter just this morning when I didn't see her coming and we walked into each other.

I think it's pretty clear from "oblivious" that there was no intent. (I would note to our new poster that it's imperative to check into one's post's responses so that questions like this can be cleared up!) I think it's rather probable that he merely used the phrase "plowed into" to mean that the collision was messy.