Interference Question

[Anti-Clone]

If the fielder was "about to receive" the relay throw, in the umpire's judgment, then this is interference. There is no requirement whatsoever that the ball actually beat the runner. Though this is the case in most circumstances since the ball tends to travel faster than the runner, it is not a criteria that should be relied on.

The NCAA guideline is: If you placed the point of a compass on the defender and the pencil on the runner, then drew a circle from there, the ball would have to be within the circle conclude that the defender was "about to receive a thrown ball."

[MTR]

If the fielder was "about to receive" the relay throw, in the umpire's judgment, then this is interference. There is no requirement whatsoever that the ball actually beat the runner. Though this is the case in most circumstances since the ball tends to travel faster than the runner, it is not a criteria that should be relied on.

The NCAA guideline is: If you placed the point of a compass on the defender and the pencil on the runner, then drew a circle from there, the ball would have to be within the circle conclude that the defender was "about to receive a thrown ball."

Yeah, nothing new here. Been teaching this for years, even before the NCAA began issuing their own rule book. However, most people had it very difficult time understanding the verbiage of the ball coming "between" the runner and defender, especially if the throw was coming from a different direction than the runner. So we began teaching when the ball gets closer to the defender receiving the throw at anytime, it is not obstruction. But umpires were still having difficulty comprehending this, so to make it as simple as possible, just using the ball as the key is what was being taught. And remember, in NCAA, the ball doesn't need to be caught, just be there to protect the defender from an OBS call.

The runner is NOT going to out run the ball once it passes him/her.