Help with ruling please......

[Steve M]

I think we all agreed on this discussion that if before the 3-foot line, this is a no-call. Our lack of agreement was when the batter-runner was beyond the 3-foot line. I was with several ASA heavyweights this past weekend - both in position/title and in size. This play came up in our discussions and the consensus of us all - probably more important that these three regional uic's, two state uic's, and several other pretty solid umps - anyway the consensus was that this is not interference. There is no play that can legally be made on the batter-runner until after she reaches 1B. She is entitled to 1B as an award for the walk and gets 1B without liability (read that as no legal play on her) to be put out. I know these folks were all speaking ASA rather than NCAA, but most of us in this talk also do NCAA ball and felt that NCAA matches ASA in this situation.