Is this a catch?

[WestMichBlue]

I think that we are getting hung up on the collapsed fence and I am not sure that it enters into the play. In most codes we are going to credit a catch made in the air, regardless of the location of the ball or body at time of the catch as long as the feet last touched live ball territory before becoming airborne.

If that was a solid fence and the fielder simply leaped over it and caught the ball on the other side of the fence before landing, it would be a legal catch.

The single picture does not tell us when the ball was caught. Possible the fielder was still in contact with the fence when she caught the ball. But we do know that the fence is down and the player is still in the air, thus she did not make a catch while in contact with a temporary fence that was on the ground or horizontal. Thus I believe that it should be a catch in any code. Only when the catch is made while the player is in contact with a horizontal fence do we get a different answer in different code: catch in ASA, no catch in NFHS and NCAA.

I say that it was ruled wrong in the game; it should have been a catch.

WMB

BTW – I suspect the rules makers were thinking of plastic netting when they wrote the rules on collapsible fencing. For that, the weight of the player must be on the fence for it to reach a horizontal position. If the player is laying or standing of that fence and it is less than flat it is a catch. If flat, then no catch in NFHS and NCAA.