Another from this weekend

Runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. We are batting and a blooper/inbetweener is hit over the first basemans head and lands about 5ft into right field. On contact, the runner on first took a couple steps back to the bag which caused a slight interference with the first basemans ability to chase down the play. IMO, the ball was not playable either way for the first baseman.

All runners are ruled safe and the opposing coach comes out to talk to the HP Umpire. The hp umpire consults with the field ump and they determine there's an out for interferenc/obstruction on the runner. They then rule that the girl on 3rd base would be out. So, instead of haing bases loaded with no outs, we now have 1st & 2nd with 1 out. IF this call is going to be made, shouldn't the runner advancing to 2nd be out which would have given us 1st & 3rd?

CatchTheFever said:

Runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. We are batting and a blooper/inbetweener is hit over the first basemans head and lands about 5ft into right field. On contact, the runner on first took a couple steps back to the bag which caused a slight interference with the first basemans ability to chase down the play. IMO, the ball was not playable either way for the first baseman.

All runners are ruled safe and the opposing coach comes out to talk to the HP Umpire. The hp umpire consults with the field ump and they determine there's an out for interferenc/obstruction on the runner. They then rule that the girl on 3rd base would be out. So, instead of haing bases loaded with no outs, we now have 1st & 2nd with 1 out. IF this call is going to be made, shouldn't the runner advancing to 2nd be out which would have given us 1st & 3rd?

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Speaking ASA


If any umpire believed there was INT on R2, it should have been an immediate dead ball. The point that this was not ruled in a timely fashion is somewhat of an indication the umpire did not judge it to be so, but was talked/intimidated into the call. Simply going after a batted ball does not protect the fielder unless the umpire determines that fielder had a viable chance to execute a play.

Assuming an INT ruling, the umpire crew screwed up the ruling. If an active runner, batter-runner or batter which interfered, THAT player is always the one ruled out. The results of this play with the INT ruling should have been that R2 is ruled out, R1 returns to the last base touched at the time of the INT (assuming 2B) and the BR is awarded 1B.

It is apparent that it wasn't the case in this play, but if the umpire had judged the fielder would have caught the ball with normal effort, the BR could also be ruled out.

Thanks MTR. We had the pleasure of experiencing some of the worst umpiring I've ever seen this weekend. I can except and actually expect below average umpiring around here but there were plays in all 7 games that we played that just had everyone scratching their heads.

Just to add, there is also the possibility that this could have been ruled as an infield fly, in which the batter would be declared out. If there was interference by a runner, that runner would also be declared out as MTR stated.

I could see how that might have been in play but it didn't seem like infield fly rule was even considered. As stated before, initially, all runners were safe on the play and it was the right fielder that fielded the ball