Question
The situation is when you have one or no outs. The team at bat usually has a runner on when this occurs. The girl at bat hits into a fielders choice at which time the lead runner is out either by touching the base or the runner. The lead runner continues to run the bases at game speed, instead of getting out of the way, just stopping or heading back to the dugout.
This tends to cause some confusion on the field as the defense thinks that the lead runner is still in play and not allowing them to focus on the girl who hit the ball but rather they focus on the lead runner. The girl can be on first, second or third when this has happened and most of the time the team at bats dugout is on the first base side. This has also happened with no runners on and the batter is thrown out at first, but is not as big of an issue other than someone getting hit by the ball when they think the play is over. I would appreciate something in writing so I can have for our records on this ruling.
Response
Interference is always a judgement call but I would think interference should be ruled in the situation described.
The way I read the explanation, the runner would have to know she was out.
The runner was either tagged or the base she was going to was touched AND hopefully a verbal call was made by the umpire.
Possibly there is some confusion such as it is not clear the fielder controlled the ball. However even then why would the runner who thought she was not out continue to advance if the fielder was there with the ball.
