What's the call and rule reference (ASA)

[PSUchem]

Originally Posted by MD Longhorn

Wait... you said, "The ball pops out. I kill the play and call the runner out for the contact."

Then you said you didn't have MC.

So why did you call the runner out, and why did you kill the play. If you don't have MC, you have a runner that's safe at home.

There's something I'm obviously not following here.

Actually saw this one the other day at a local tournament. I thought the same as MD. I thought you either had 1) malicious contact resulting in an out for interference, runners return, and an ejection or 2) no malicious contact, with no penalty -- play on, likely with the runner being safe because the ball came out.

Unfortunately, 8-7-Q does not read that way.

ASA 8-7-Q: The runner is out... when a defensive player has the ball and the runner remains upright and crashes into the defensive player. EFFECT: The ball is dead. The runner is out. All runners must return to the last base touched. If the act is determined to be flagrant, the offender shall be ejected.

So it appears that you have 2 different situations IF there was contact.
1) There was contact but not malicious. Apply typical interference penalties.
2) There was contact that WAS malicious. Apply typical interference penalties AND eject.

Now, we can debate what "crash" means. It sounds like once the defender has the ball, any contact by the runner while remaining on his/her feet is essentially interference. Only if it is deemed flagrant is there an ejection.