Interference Question
 

U10 travel ball game the other night. OBR rules. I'm working solo. Batter hits ball into LCF gap. R1 is going from 1st to 3rd. Defense throws wildly past 3rd and ball is headed for the offensive team's dugout on the 3B side. The dugout is fenced but has an opening (no gate) for the players to come in and out. A player on the offensive team is standing in the opening inside the dugout, but is leaning on a bat which extends a few inches past the opening and onto the playing field. Ball is headed for the opening but strikes the bat and remains in play.

What's the call, and where do the runners end up? (R1 was between 2nd and 3rd at time of throw and BR had reached first).

I scoured the rule book last night and couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. I don't think this is "unintentional interference" by someone authorized to be on the field (like a ballboy). But I'm not sure exactly what it was. Would have really liked to have a partner to talk it over with. :)

Play on, McDuff. All he did was screw his own team out of a possible award.

I'll give you two options:

1. It's 10U for pete's sake, and the defense has already started their bad news bears routine. Kill it because it would have gone out of play, award bases, hope the defense can record some outs on the next play.

2. If the offense keeps the ball in play and affords the defense further opportunities to record outs, you can let that go. If the defense had kept it from going out, I would have killed that immediately. If it looks like the offense will benefit rather than the defense, see option 1.

For the record, I went with Option 1, but it really bugged me when I thought about it afterwards.

I like Option 1 ;)

Thanks
David