interference

[Roger Greene]

You need to answer a couple of questions to make this judgement call.

Was the contact malicious? If yes then out and eject.
(I'm suddenly remembering a ruling on a runner that has scored making malicious contact. Is she just ejected or is she out and ejected? Gotta hit the case book unless somebody has that cite.)
If not malicious then:

Who initiated the contact?
If the runner was running to and tagged the back of the plate, and F2 moved into her path attempting to make a swipe tag, then its probably a nothing.
If the catcher was standing on the front of the plate mearly catching the ball and the runner caused the contact then you may very well have a violation of 8-4-2b or 8-4-2c.
If its a violation of c then the ball is dead and the runner is out. If it was a force play (see 8-4-2e) then you have 2 outs. If its a violation of b then the runner is out and the ball remains alive.

8-4-2h speaks to declaring another runner out for a runner preventing a double play. I didn't see how this could apply to your sitch as presented.


Roger Greene,
member UT