My adventures this weekend.

[MaverickAH]

I appreciate both of your opinions, but I must simply disagree. We shouldn't have to coach our girls to run through or over or initiate contact to get the appropriate call made. We would be inviting more and more injuries, and we would be exposing ourselves to being sued because we told the player it was ok to steamroll someone in her way. In both of these instances, my SS would have obliterated the baserunner, and while we would have been "in the right," I would take no satisfaction in that, moreso if it caused an injury to either girl. I know contact is inevitable in certain situations, and there will be injuries as a result, but as demonstrated in these two instances, contact was avoided, injuries didn't happen, and the correct call wasn't made. I coach my girls to play correctly and know the rules, and these times the system failed them. Only thing I can do is hope that the pendulum swings back my way for the next tournament, as I'm not changing how I coach them.

While no one is saying that your SS should "obliterate" a runner or wants to see anyone get injured, you have to realize that interference is a "judgment call". I don't want to speak on the actual play that you describe because it's definitely a, "had to be there", kind of play.

If you are coaching your girls to stop whenever they think there may be contact, you are coaching them incorrectly! It's the runner's responsibility to avoid interfering with a defensive player making a play on a batted ball. Teach your players to go after the ball! If you're teaching them to stop, well......, you are the one setting up a situation of leaving the call to the umpire's judgment!

Did she pull up because of interference?
Did she pull up because she had no play on the ball?
Did the runner make a move to avoid the interference?

An umpire has got to have a clear indication. Pulling up & stopping on a laterally hit ball (or even one hit directly in front!) just may not give that clear indication.

 

[Umpire]

While no one is saying that your SS should "obliterate" a runner or wants to see anyone get injured, you have to realize that interference is a "judgment call". I don't want to speak on the actual play that you describe because it's definitely a, "had to be there", kind of play.

If you are coaching your girls to stop whenever they think there may be contact, you are coaching them incorrectly! It's the runner's responsibility to avoid interfering with a defensive player making a play on a batted ball. Teach your players to go after the ball! If you're teaching them to stop, well......, you are the one setting up a situation of leaving the call to the umpire's judgment!

Did she pull up because of interference?
Did she pull up because she had no play on the ball?
Did the runner make a move to avoid the interference?

An umpire has got to have a clear indication. Pulling up & stopping on a laterally hit ball (or even one hit directly in front!) just may not give that clear indication.

That's why umpires get paid. They get paid to make those calls. They make them based on the facts, common sense and experience. A short stop is charging a grounder and when the runner gets about 5 feet from her, she pulls up. It doesn't exactly take proof beyond a reasonable doubt to rule interference here.