There was a controversial play that occurred in the 8th inning that I've never seen come up in all my years of watching baseball, and I thought I'd get you guys opinions on what should have been called.
Catawba was down 6-5 in the 8th inning with a man on 2nd and 1 out. The batter hit a pop fly straight up out in front of the plate, down the 1st base line. It was going to land right on the 1st base line, about 30-35 feet from home plate.
WHen the batter hit it, he hesititated slightly because he thought he had fouled it out of play. By the time he noticed it was straight up and took off to run, the catcher had already popped up and started moving towards the ball. It was a popfly that probably could have been caught by any of the catcher, the pitcher, or the first baseman.
So the hitter takes off, but he's about 2-3 steps behind the catcher. At first, the catcher is calling for the ball and he was going to be able to settle under it somewhat easily to attempt to make the catch. He was standing right in the baseline.
So the batter sees that the catcher is in the baseline, and, as he SHOULD have done, he avoids the fielder because you can't bowl over a fielder that's making a play on the ball - even if he's in the baseline. I know that much. So the baserunner avoids the catcher and goes around him.
Problem was, as soon as the runner did this...the 1st baseman comes charging in from out of nowhere and calls off the catcher at the last minute. Again, makes sense because he has a much easier play on the ball coming in on it and not having a catchers mitt.
As the first baseman calls the ball and the catcher moves out of the way, the first baseman COLLIDES with the baserunner who was previously getting out of the catcher's way to allow him to catch it. The first baseman got absolutely clotheslined.
The ball landed fair and hit the first baseman, who was laid out and laying in fair territory. The Catawba runner on 2nd advanced to 3rd during all the commotion, and the batter made his way to first base safely.
The home plate umpire signaled fair, fair, fair.
The other team's manager came out to argue, and after a lengthy argument the home plate ump called all the umps in for a conference. After a long talk, they called Catawba's coach out there to talk to him and apparently explained why they were going to overturn the call. They overturned it and the batter was ruled out, with the baserunner sent back to 2nd since it was ruled a dead ball.
My initial thought when watching the play was that it should have been an out, BUT the catcher's involvement in the play makes it very dicey to me. The baserunner made his absolute best effort to allow the fielding team an opportunity to catch the ball. He did that by avoiding the catcher that was in the middle of the basepath, as he should have. If the catcher wasn't involved in the play and he simply bowled over a charging first baseman that was trying to make the play, it would have been an obvious out.
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