What's the call?

I don't know Little League rules.

Under high school rules, coaches are required to vacate any area needed by a fielder in his attempt to put out a batter or runner.

Under pro rules, coaches are allowed to be outside the box, but if they are outside the box, they ahve to stay out of the way of the play.

About the only way I can imagine the first baseman colliding with the first base coach just as he turns to retrieve an errant throw would be for the coach to be outside the coaching box. Even in Little League, the coaches box starts 6 feet into foul territory.

I wasn't there, and I don't know Little League rules, but it's hard to imagine this not being interference under any rule set.

Dead ball at the moment of impact between coach and defensive player.

Batter-runner is out.

Runner returns to third base.

Why isn't the runner from third out instead of the batter runner? Because the play never had a chance to develop into an attempt to retire that runner. If it's interference, the attempt to score and the attempt to retire the runner from third never happened.

Thanks for the reply.  The coaches interference had no bearing on the BR being safe at first.  He was safe on the errant throw.  The interference only affected F3's ability to make a play on R1.  I understand that the interference kills the play and no runners may advance from the point of contact.  But do we need to call an out?  And if so, since the interference had no affect on BR, do we need to call the runner closest to home out?

If I remember my LL rules a base coach who gets in the way of a fielder, intentionally or not, attempting to make a play on a ball is guilty of interference and the batter is out.  But if he unintentionally gets in the way of a thrown ball or a fielder going after a thrown ball, there is no interference.  So the umpire's judgment has to determine the coach's intent.

Looked at another way you don't want to protect the defence from the consequences of making a bad  play.  F5 committed the error.  R1 took advantage  of that. You shouldn't penalize R1 for his base coach being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

With most interference calls, the rules specify who is out--the player who committed the interference or the player who directly benefitted from the interference.

This one is a judgment call because it is the immediate aftermath of a play. The errant throw gives two runners the potential opportunity to advance,but at the moment of interference, the first baseman has not indicated which runner he might make a play on:

a) The batter runner in the immediate vicinity of the play that was just attempted and the player who was interfered with, and b) the runner on third who checked up on the grounder to F5.

You already told me that after the throw went awry, the first baseman turned, collided with the coach, disentangled himself, retrieved the ball, threw home, and still almost got the runner. If the runner on third can't easily score standing up on a 60' diamond in that situation, he had to have been welded to third base at the time of the interference.

Neither runner did anything wrong, but somebody's gotta be out.

There's no rule saying the lead runner is out when the coach interferes with a fielder.

I'm calling out the player closest to the scene of the crime.

Thanks Guys.  I appreciate the replies.

Coach's intent matters only when they are hit by thrown balls.

High school and pro rules require coaches to get out of the way of fielders attempting to make plays.