Dropped 3rd strike and BR interference
 

1st year ump and not all that familiar with rules yet.

1. Batter gets called strike 3; catcher drops ball. Batter proceeds to dugout not realizing that ball is dropped. I call batter out because she headed to dugout and did not proceed directly to 1B. Coach disagreed. He said that BR can go to 1B untill she is in dugout. I can't find the rule to support me or him. Can anyone help here? What do you do? We are talking about 14U instructional league. I understood that once girl starts toward dugout, she has committed to that and cannot go to 1B.

2. Batter hits fly ball 10 feet down 1B line heading foul. Pitcher is running to catch. BR and pitcher collide in foul territory. Interference? What is ruling?

Speaking NFHS, check casebook 8.1.1 Situation A.

To paraphrase, the batter is not declared out unless she enters dead ball territory, does not reach the base before the next pitch, or the inning has ended becasue all infielders left the diamond.

Is ASA the same?

1. coach was right. Nothing anywhere in the book (or interps) should lead you to an understanding that movement in any direction commits anyone to continue in that direction ... including movement toward the dugout. She can go 1 step shy of the dugout, and then realize she can run and head to first.

2. If you believe F1 had a play on the ball, this is simple interference - BR out. If you don't believe F1 had a play on the ball, BR is not out (although it is still technically a play where a runner interferes with a fielder while the ball is over fou ground (which does not have the penalty of an out) and the ball is immediately ruled foul, and thus dead ... even if the ball rolls fair after that, it cannot become a fair ball).