Batter Interference?

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by Andy

I need to know a bit more, however. Was there a play that was being interferred with by the batter contacting the ball? From your description, it doesn't seem that R1 is trying to advance home until after the ball is kicked away. If F2 was able to retrieve the ball would there be a play on R1 at third? If not, could you just kill the ball, put R1 back at third and play from there? 7-6-S has an exception similar to this, but specifically mentions a batter making contact with a return throw from the catcher to the pitcher.

That's the crux of the issue. To me, the batter did nothing wrong. She actually tried to do the right thing by backing out of the box to avoid any possible play at home, and kicked the ball that she had no idea was behind her feet.

I suppose the 7-6P-S Exception could apply. The batter did prevent the catcher from retrieving the ball while there was no play being made. It would have been a stretch for me to assume the incident prevented F2 from making a play on R1 going back to third base.