Rundown OBS
 

2-2 count, R1 on 3B. Pitch is low for a ball, R1 forgets what's going on and trots casually towards home. F2 runs towards R1, who has been alerted to the problem...then F2 throws to F5 at 3B. R1 breaks for home, F5 chasing and closing the gap quickly. F2 stands in the baseline and obstructs R1. F5 tags R1 twenty feet from home.

Where do you put the runner?

Scores - unless SB is completely out of its mind.

Okay, but was F2 in the runner's base path?

Don't know where I would place the runner without seeing it, but a default would have to be to the advantage of the offended team.

The OP says "obstructs R1", so the judgment then becomes whether the "closing the gap quickly" F5 would have caught R1 before home with no OBS.
IOW, did the OBS cost R1 the twenty feet?

If judged that R1 would have been tagged by F5 before home without OBS, R1 gets 3rd. If not, R1 gets home.

So SB IS out of its mind. You can obstruct in a rundown with no penalty.

The proper idea of the rule is to remove/offset the disadvantage, not just to punish the D or give a gift to the O. :rolleyes:

Oh yeah, it requires judgment. :p

Unless this is some trick question, seems simple to me. R1 goes back to third.

And the coach gives his/her runner a head slap to WAKE UP!

Runner was obstructed and caught 20 feet from the plate. If s/he had been tagged 3 or 4 feet from HP, I might think otherwise.

The result of OBS in USA softball is never a "penalty". The intent of the rule is to remove the effect of the obstruction, not penalize the defense.

So I can tackle the runner going home and get the runner put back at third? It's an illegal act. Why can I get away with it?

Yeah, I know she tripped the runner headed to 2B but "That's not fair. She would have been out anyhow." I guess whining pays off.

For contrast, why, in ALL baseball rules, is obstruction in a rundown penalized by giving the runner the next base? Because obstructing a runner is illegal. Penalize it.

Just telling you the rule.

Because obstruction in softball is not a punitive penalty, it is simply to correct what the defense cost the offense and nothing more. The obstructed runner and any other runner affected by the obstruction get awarded the base or bases the umpire judges they would have reached absent the obstruction.

Do you really want to talk about UC ejection plays, or are you just trolling? :eek:

In NSA the award in a rundown is the next base regardless of which way the runner is headed at the time of obstruction.

I don't know about you guys...........but...........in my book the runner's brain fart started this rundown. She got herself caught in a world of hurt. Myself, in my consideration of where I would place her..........her initial "walking" toward home is she's "never" going to make it so the best she's gonna get is back to 3rd base where she started. She's lucky to get out of the mess and her coach is probably pretty happy it's back to square one.

Don't be absurd. Ridiculously absurd. Yes, USA Softball allows for the fact that many, if not most occurrences of obstruction are unintentional. And automatic one base advance is about as absurd as your given scenario.

NFHS used to have an automatic award for all OBS. Umpires would ignore obvious OBS simply because they believed awarding 2B on an attempted pick-off at 1B was ridiculous.