Your partner needs a clinic.

Simply put, the deflected ball rule applies. Unless the runner intentionally interfered, there is no interference. The ball is live and the runner is not out.

Knowing the rationale may help. On an initially batted ball, the runners are expected to watch (or at least see) the ball. So they can be called out without intent to interfere. Compare that to the deflected ball. The runner isn't required to watch the ball everlasting. Therefore, they can't be held accountable when the ball flies off in another direction, UNLESS, they saw it happen and intentionally interfered. That's because, even though they weren't required to look for the ball, they saw it anyway and "fairness" requires them to act appropriately. In this case, acting appropriately means to avoid interfering when you know you can do so.

Now that you have started posting, how about some geography and credentials in your profile or at least in an introductory post. We know who is authoritative on here, but we don't know if you are for real.

Is there an echo in here? ;)