Umpire interference

[Roger Greene]

Steve and Joel are correct, IMO.

The only place I know that you may find discussion of the batter interference on the backswing in a rule book would be OBR 6.06(c)comment. "If a batter strikes at a ball and misses and swings so hard he carries the bat all the way around and, in the umpire's judgement, unintentionally hits the catcher or the ball in back of him on the backswing before the catcher has securely held the ball it shall be called a strike only (not interference). The ball will be dead, however, and no runner shall advance on the play."

Therefore, since in the sitch presented, there was a two strike count the batter is out. Had the count been less than two strikes it would have simply been a strike and a dead ball. I would not declare the batter out for inteference, unless the action was clearly an intentional attempt to protect a stealing runner.(That would be a third world play!)

Since this is not specifically spelled out in the Fed book, I think you must look at other association interpertations and even baseball interpertations in some cases, as softball is decended from the baseball game. In this case the comment quoted just makes sense for the occurance diescribed.

Roger Greene,
Member UT