Reply to "No blocking the plate in HS...right?"

noumpere posted:

K9 posted:

The runner did slide, but did not try to avoid contact, so I think its an easy ejection.

Batty67 posted:

I'm the original poster and just watched the video. My son is a catcher, but I'm sort of with Buckeye on this. But...three things. (1) to me the catcher WAS blocking the plate entirely BEFORE the ball arrived (but not egregious) so that should be obstruction; .

Neither of those is the HS rule regarding MC and OBS.

 

In the first failure to "try to avoid contact" makes the runner out even if F2 drops the ball (and it might also be INT, so other runners can't advance).  You need an additional level of MC to have an ejection.

In the second, it's only OBS if the entire plate is blocked *while F2 does not have the ball AND while the runner is trying to reach it."  The runner is so far away in this play when the plate is blocked that the second part of that is not true.

The video is inconclusive (in my view) on MC.

Thanks for the information, that makes sense.  As a follow up - what could the runner have done?  If he went outside of the baseline to avoid contact/tag would he have been called out for that?