That's Interference!

[UmpireErnie]

Originally Posted by Manny A

Is there no such animal as post-obstruction evidence in softball?

Ground ball base hit to the outfield. BR is slightly hindered by F3 rounding first, and you immediately decide she probably wouldn't get second. But then F8 muffs the ball and it goes toward the fence. BR is thrown out at third on a close play. Are you going to rule her out since you probably wouldn't have even protected her to second, much less third?

IMO when you call OBS you should make an initial decision where to protect the runner to. The nice thing is you don't announce that decision to the rest of the world just yet so if presented with compelling evidence as the play progresses you can change your initial decision.

In your play I very possibly would have made an initial decision that BR was not going past 1B but then seeing how fast she is rounding 2B realize my initial decision was wrong and make the protection 2B. I'm not adding to the award based on F8 muffing the ball, that has nothing to do with the OBS.

Regardless I need to have a firm decision made prior to the play being made on the obstructed BR so I can be ready to handle that call properly. As I see this play in my mind based on your description I doubt I would have protected to 3B it does not sound like she hit a clean triple; frankly those are rare. So all I have is normal safe/out call. But let's say I had protected to 3B now on the tag my call is "Dead Ball!" followed by the award of 3B. If I'm still busy deciding where to protect BR I have a better than average chance of botching the call at 3B either with bad decision or bad mechanics.