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Interference by offensive team member


Guest ricky
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I umpire adult rec softball. If team member from dugout interferes verbally with fair fly ball at first base I'm assuming my out would be the batter. Am I correct. I couldn't find anything really clear cut in rule books.

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I have an old ASA rule book from 2014 (before ASA became USA). I found a couple of references that might be of help to you.

The first paragraph of the Rules Supplement entry for Interference states the following—

“Interference may be in the form of physical contact, verbal distraction, visual distraction, or any type of distraction that hinders a fielder in the execution of a play.”

Then in the same entry it lists the different types of interference. One type listed is—

Offensive players in the dugout may be charged with interference if they interfere with a fielder’s opportunity to make an out on a fly ball.”

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Assuming you are using USA Softball rules ...

Rule 7 Batting

Section 6 The batter is out

K. When members of the team at bat, including those in the team area other than runners, interfere with a player attempting to field a fair or foul fly ball.

If you have runners on ...

Rule 8 Batter-Runner and Runner

Section 6 A runner must return to their base

C. When a batter, batter-runner or runner is called out for interference. All other runners shall return to the last base touched at the time of the interference.

 

FYI ... USA Softball FINALLY made their rulebook available online at no cost.  The 2022 version can be found here: 

 https://www.teamusa.org/-/media/USA_Softball/Documents/2022/Rulebook/2022USASoftballRulebook.pdf

 

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On 9/29/2022 at 11:24 AM, Mudisfun said:

Depending  on how egregious the comments, you may also be grabbing an ejection at the conclusion of play. Really depending on how much beer has been consumed, you may be grabbing several...

Agreed...if one feels strongly enough to call verbal interference, at the minimum hand out a warning or warnings and or an ejection too and tell them to firmly knock it off. Failure to do so will likely cause the umpiring crew to begin to lose control of the game.

~Dawg 

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