Interference?

[DTQ_Blue]

Irish,

Well I would not go so far as to say that R2 was doing what she was supposed to do because the rules only explicitly say what she can't do. The judgment I have to make is whether she is doing one of those things she's not supposed to do.

My reasoning for the call ...

F6 can't field what she can't see, and she couldn't see the ball because R2 was in front of her. I understand that R2 wasn't intentionally trying to obstruct F6 vision, but she nonetheless did. F6 didn't have a chance to react to the ball in time after R2 cleared her. Why is that not interference?

BTW, the reason I am posting this is because I know that one of these days I will have to deal with this issue in a game that really matters (the game I'm describing here did not). I'm still relatively new to calling softball, and most umpires I've worked with probably would not have made this call, but one of the times I saw it made was with a partner working BU in a HS game who is probably one of the most experienced umpires in our association, i.e., HS and D1 college ball.

I can use some of the board's wisdom on this because I this seems to happen much more when I work softball vs when I work hardball.