Catch / No Catch

[moblue]

FED Rules

Batter hits a pop-up towards the third base side of foul territory. The ball takes the catcher to the fence. The ball hits the catcher's glove, then the fence, then the catcher grabs the ball with his bare hand on the deflection and holds it. Catch or No Catch?

[ukce1861]

FED Rules

Batter hits a pop-up towards the third base side of foul territory. The ball takes the catcher to the fence. The ball hits the catcher's glove, then the fence, then the catcher grabs the ball with his bare hand on the deflection and holds it. Catch or No Catch?

No catch. It touched an object foreign to the natural ground while over foul territory, making it foul and dead. 2-16-1d

[semper_fi_72]

FED Rules

Batter hits a pop-up towards the third base side of foul territory. The ball takes the catcher to the fence. The ball hits the catcher's glove, then the fence, then the catcher grabs the ball with his bare hand on the deflection and holds it. Catch or No Catch?

No catch.

The ball contacting the fence made it a foul.

No different than if the ball contacted the fence before being caught.

[UmpJM]

I concur with ukc and would that once it touched the fence the ball was no longer "in flight", and therefore could not become a legal catch.

JM

Edited to add...

I see semper_fi was a bit "quicker on the trigger" than I.

[moblue]

Thanks, I was at the game and the umpires ruled it a catch. At first I was thinking the PU wasn't in position to see it hit the fence, but was later told they admitted it hit the fence and ruled it a catch.