Expert: Andrew Senger - 9/25/2009

Question
Mr. Senger, we had the following situation last night in our game and would like to know what the official rule is.

Runner on 1st. Less than 2 outs.  Batter pops up ball to 1st base and 1st baseman needs to run in to catch it. The runner at first runs into the 1st baseman and the ball drops untouched and goes foul before passing 1st base. Our umpires ruled that the runner interfered with the fielder and called the runner out but let the batter go to 1st base. Is this the right call? There were no other runners on the bases.

Answer
Michael,

Using Official Baseball Rules, the call was correct:

7.09 It is interference by a batter or a runner when—
(j) He fails to avoid a fielder who is attempting to field a batted ball
PENALTY FOR INTERFERENCE: The runner is out and the ball is dead.

Since the ball was dead, the batter/runner has to be awarded first base.

On a side note, if the umpire felt the runner intentionally interfered with the play, the rules allow the umpire to call both the runner AND the batter out.