Interference on a walked batter

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by jmkupka

Love hearing about rulings, then checking them out here for their validity...

My experienced partner, who played fastpitch himself for 20 yrs as F2, says: with R1 on 3rd, ball 4 to the batter, in order to prevent the rundown trick ( to score R1), he used to fire the ball down to F3 before BR reached 1B. Again, this just prevented BR from rounding 1B. This technique was known to the umpires who called his games.

His point to me was, if said BR happened to be outside the 3' running lane (in fair territory) and got hit with the throw, BR is out for INT (and R1 back to 3B if trying to advance).

What say my mentors?

I find it hard to believe some are debating NFHS rules for your partner.

ASA does not recognize this as a valid play since there is no opportunity to retire the BR.

But if you really want to get your partner going, tell him it is a stupid play.

NCAA players have it right, return the ball to the pitcher. The pitcher is the closest single player to all possible plays. The pitcher having the ball also puts the LBR in effect when it becomes available.