Runner Inside Foul Line

[Captain_Thunder]

Watching a replay of the Mississippi State/Oklahoma game right now.
Oklahoma batter swings at a pitch that goes about 10 feet in front of the plate.
Miss St. Catcher picks up the ball & drills the runner in the side of the head. She was way inside fair territory.
Plate Ump & 2B Ump have perfect view of ball hitting runner & how far inside she was. I would say 1B Ump was positioned good also.

They called it an error on the Catcher & gave the base to the batter.
Is the rule different in college softball, then any other softball/baseball association?????
I'm really confused......Announcers for these games never seem to know very much either.......

Calling Bretman!!!

 

[BretMan2]

My first question would be...How far up the line/far away from first base was the runner when she was hit?

The three-foot running lane starts 1/2 to first base, 30 feet up the line, and the rule doesn't apply before that point.

My second question...If the runner had reached the halfway point, was the throw directed AT the fielder receiving the throw, and was there a reasonable expectation that the throw was catchable and could have retired the runner?

 

[Captain_Thunder]

Runner was about 8-10 foot from the base. And it looked, in the replay, that she even went another foot inward to make a throw even more difficult.

 

[BretMan2]

This took a little digging since I don't officiate NCAA ball...

Apparently, for college ball the three foot running lane was eliminated last year. There's no longer a requirement for the batter-runner to stay within it. To be called for interference she would have to do something intentional to contact the ball (reach out and grab or swat it, jump into it's path, etc), same as a throw coming into any other base.

This is from their current rule book where it discusses rule changes;

The last in the list of field-related issues is the deletion of the runner’s lane� Although a longtime tradition of the game, the runner’s lane is an enigma� It is the designated space for the batter-runner as she approaches first base and yet, coaches neither teach nor encourage their players to run there between contact with the pitch and contact with first base� There’s not a player in the game who doesn’t know the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, so it is counter intuitive to run from the batter’s box to the lane and then back into fair territory to touch first base� Batter-runners typically run that straight line to first base with little regard for the runner’s lane and so, for that reason, the lane was deleted as a required line on the field� But that said, there is no change in the batter-runner’s responsibility not to interfere with the player receiving the throw at first base�

Personal opinion...this is rather weak reasoning. But we've seen similar directives in recent years from the NCAA rules committee with things such as hit batters, illegal pitches, obstruction and interference. The rule changes are coach-driven and you can bet that somewhere in the last couple of years some influential coach got burned by this rule. So instead of teaching the rule...they just lobbied to have it changed.

 

[Captain_Thunder]

Thanks for taking the time to give that info, Bretman!!!
I think it is kinda BS reasoning too - But very glad to know why that happened in this game.

Was this only done in NCAA Softball, or did they include it in baseball?
Lot more plays where running in fair territory gives an advantage in softball vs. baseball......