butle030

One out, R1 and a sharp ground ball to F3's right. I anticipated F3 would throw to second to get the lead runner. Instead he fields and steps on first and I yell "Out at two!" and then immediately "out at one, out at one". F3 throws to F6 for the tag play and I ruled R1 safe at second. Luckily nobody seemed to notice (or maybe just didn't care) as I'd gotten both obvious calls correct at the end of the day but I felt some shame anyway.

From another thread, there appears to be no rule in the FED book about a runner in foul territory intentionally touching a moving batted ball while it is in foul territory. It simply is a foul ball under strict interpretation of the NFHS book, which does preclude a BATTER from intentionally deflecting a foul ball AND a runner from coming into contact with a FAIR batted ball. I think the FED should adopt the OBR rule 7.09©

This is my interpretation after scouring the NFHS rules too but I have the question in to the head of my association as well. In fact, this was a 14-year old who meant no harm by touching the ball but just did a dumb thing because, well, he's 14. He simply meant to return it to the pitcher for the next play. Add to that the ball was moving so slowly, all runners would have been safe had the ball rolled back fair by some strange act of nature. I'm more comfortable this was called correctly than I initially was.

I'm not sure about this. NFHS is a complete set of stand alone rules and makes no reference to using OBR where it is silent. You are the first person who has ever told me to defer to OBR.

Thanks, but I can't find anything equivalent to that in the NFHS rules or case books. I assume you're citing the OBR?

I worked with a new partner the other day. I was working the bases with first and third. Batter hits a slow roller in foul territory off the third base line. The runner on third touched the ball. My partner, the home plate ump, ruled a foul ball, feeling the ball would not have rolled fair. Is this a legitimate call or should the batter have been out due to offensive interference? If he should have been out, where do we draw the line on coaches picking up foul balls before they stop?