NFHS 3' violation on BOB - chickens almost roosted!

[Dakota]

HS scrimmage last Sat - dome ball. I'm on the bases.

No runners on base. Batter receives a BOB. As she is trotting down to 1st, F2 stands ready, in fair territory, arm cocked. I'm thinking - she' gonna plunk that runner the moment she steps into fair territory. BR stays on the foul side, so nothing happens.

Didn't look to me like F2 was going to make a legitimate attempt to stop a BR advance to 2nd, since the way she was positioned, she would have been throwning behind the runner to F3 instead of ahead of the runner to F4. Looked to me like she was preparing to "draw" the 3' violation call.

Fortunately, BR stayed where she belonged, or I would have had a quiet conversation with the D-coach about having his F2 sit out the rest of the scrimmage.

You guys who have more experience with Fed ball (WMB? others?)... what do you think? If F2 had thrown at BR out of the running lane, what would you have done? Go with the book / interp call and declare BR out? Or, go with your instinct that this was intentional?

I'm not trying to resurrect the "is this a good interp by NFHS" discussion we've had several times. I'm (as an ASA ump relatively new to NFHS) trying to get the ruling right according to NFHS.

[Edited by Dakota on Mar 29th, 2005 at 01:16 PM]