Yep. Amd really easy for an innocent runner to be caught off-guard by a ball that was hit up the middle suddenly heading toward her in between first and second! That's why they have this exception to the rule.
I'll throw one more out at you. Since we established that the ball contacting the runner was not a rule violation on this play, what about the potential catch by the fielder? Once the ball hit the runner, there wasn't any catch to be had. When a batted ball touches anything other than another defensive player, it is no longer considered to be airbourne or in-flight. It's the same as if the ball had already hit the ground. So at that point there wasn't any catch to be had and it's impossible to say the runner "prevented a catch".
I'll throw one more out at you. Since we established that the ball contacting the runner was not a rule violation on this play, what about the potential catch by the fielder? Once the ball hit the runner, there wasn't any catch to be had. When a batted ball touches anything other than another defensive player, it is no longer considered to be airbourne or in-flight. It's the same as if the ball had already hit the ground. So at that point there wasn't any catch to be had and it's impossible to say the runner "prevented a catch".
