Obstruction?

[greymule]

I know this is a HTBT play, but I never had seen this one, and I can make a case for ruling either way on it. Girls ASA 16-under fast pitch, good teams. Runner trying to steal 3B, pitch was strike three swinging to RH batter, who immediately started to run to her dugout on the 1B side. The catcher stepped out to make the throw to 3B and got tangled with the batter, who was standing in front of home plate. Then the catcher threw behind the batter, but too late.

This sounds like an obvious case of interference, but with the batter out of the box, the catcher could simply have thrown the ball directly to 3B, without taking the normal step forward to clear herself of the batter. Though she did what she normally does on the play, she sort of created the interference, because the batter had moved.

I had a no call, but I've been thinking about it for days now. I think the right call was probably interference, even though the catcher originally had a clear path for her throw to 3B. Or was this one of those "inadvertent interference" calls where you just send the runner back? Anybody ever had to deal with this one?

[Edited by greymule on Jul 29th, 2002 at 04:29 PM]