Question on ASA Obstruction Award Procedure

[IamMatt]

Two questions: what difference would it make, if any, if:

1) BR made no attempt to alter her path to 2B or otherwise avoid F3, but simply crashed into her (assume BR had the opportunity to do this)? ("B-R rounds 1B going full speed to 2B; bumps into F3..."

or

2) R1 never left 2B?

[Dakota]

In 1) there would be the issue of possible USC, but other than that, no difference.

In 2) (assuming you meant 2B) the RS gives us the official ASA interpretation, and just because R1 did not leave before the OBS, does not mean you can assume things about how the play would have ended. Can BR legally advance to 2B with R1 standing there? Yes. What would happen if she did that? We don't know. Maybe R1 would then try to advance and be tagged. Maybe the defense would merely tag the BR. Maybe as R1 tries to advance or BR tries to retreat, the defense would overthrow and both runs would score. We don't know. We we do have is a judgment to make on where BR would have ended had there been no obstruction.

Without the ASA RS (that is, for example, in NFHS), I would not award the BR 2B with R1 going nowhere and the ball in the infield. I would judge her to be a dead duck at 2B and return her to 1B. I expect I would do the same in an ASA game.