Coach going too Far/Catcher intentionally hits batter…

Not sure how many have seen this but there was an incident out in Texas during a High School Softball playoff game that has me wanting real consequences.

A high school catcher has clearly been coached to draw an interference call. The problem is the coach (possibly criminal imo) coached his catcher to violate the purpose of the game. I really do not put much on the catcher. I think they are a victim here. Unfortunately they will now need to earn trust back because of their coach. But you will see a catcher literally target a batter and in a manner that is beyond dangerous. Twice. Once there was a technical play at third. But you will see that was no way part of the catchers intent. The one where she flat nails the batter in the head is hard to watch. There was no play at third.

The coach should have been suspended immediately by the AD at the school. And likely fired. I understand the rule he was trying to take advantage of. But he completely crossed every line of sports and sportsmanship in doing so. This poor catcher he was coaching has been led by one of the worst examples possible. And now has to live with that. These batters were arguably still in the box. And as a dad/coach (who was ignorant of the rule from the standpoint of it being taken advantage of until last fall when my daughter played travel for the first time and had it used against her though not to this degree) this infuriates me.

High school softball team under investigation after viral video of catcher throwing balls at batters' heads

Here is a breakdown of the at bats which are in the link above….



The coach and AD are to meet with a disciplinary committee….

https://www.yourbasin.com/news/mccamey-softball-coach-to-appear-at-uil-disciplinary-hearing/

 

Two problems. The batter is arguably in the box when the throw happens. And the bigger problem is the intent is not to make a play. But instead to hit a player with the ball. The batter is not in the line of where the throw needs to go.

This Coach should never coach again!

 

Yep.

I do think the player is a victim to a point here. Now if I was able to question her that may change my opinion. But this is more on the coach imo. The catcher sadly now has to deal with this the rest of her life though. Because of the coach!

 

Yes always stay in the box to avoid controversy.

But interference means you are in the way of a throw to make a play.

The catcher only made a play to hit the batter. They were not throwing to their teammate. If they were making a legitimate throw to their 3B and batter is out of the box then it is interference. This is dirty and has NO place in sports! It was not interference. Hence the umpire did not call it. That said the umpire should be suspended as well for not protecting the batter and the game of Baseball/Softball!

 

If the batter stays in the box they should not be called for interference. The catcher has to throw around them. If they step out of the box and in the way of the line the throw then the catcher can try to throw through them and get an interference call. I think the rule is written poorly but don’t quote me on that. I believe they may not have the catcher must be making a legitimate play. Not really something that should need to be added. But after this…

I had a situation years ago in a championship game where we were headed to extra innings. My daughter threw a strike down the middle. The batter attempted to bunt the ball and it hit her hand. Should have been a strike regardless of the attempted bunt. The umpire gave her first base for being hit by pitch. Just bad umpiring as he said he was protecting the players. I said no you’re not. You are putting them in danger. As based on this call I may as well just have every batter lean completely over the plate and take a pitch. The game would never end by your position…

The umpire in the video is far worse the more I thought about it. The catcher should have been tossed from the game after the second one. Maybe he felt the first one was just a bad throw. Once it was obvious no play was being made but only the attempt to hit someone. The player needs to be tossed. Then the AD should have fired the coach immediately after being shown the video of what happened. At least imo…

 

I originally posted this in Too Hot as I frequent that forum more often. @OklahomaGator asked me to post it here as well. Glad he did!

To your point…my first time dealing with this was actually last fall when my daughter for the first time played travel. I was not at the game so this is hearsay from that regard. But everything lines up. She is a really good ball player. Never done travel was the MVP as a freshman for the JV at her high school and probably would have played varsity all year had she.l not been a pitcher also. But playing city league we dealt with throw downs to third but it never got to the point of seeing a catcher coached to try and hit a player instead of making a play. Again. I was not there. But my daughters first at bat ever in 18U travel ball she was hit by a throw to third and called out after 5 minutes. My understanding was she was in the box. It was after at least one pitch and the team notices she backed up after the pitch (probably on the line of the box). A pitch or two later the catcher hits her on a throw. Probably not egregious like this but…

After they argue for the out call and our coaches argue for 5 minutes she is called out in her first ever at bat for a travel game 18U as a 14 year old. Good news is she learned and ended the season batting in the top 3 of the lineup for the championship games. But I have no doubt that Coach was coaching this crap.

 

I probably worded it poorly being on a message board. My point is the catcher is young and unfortunately at an age that I can at least understand her following instructions. Even knowing they might be pushing what we know is right and wrong. I absolutely think the catcher should have been thrown out of the game. From there...suspension more based on asking the questions and seeing the response.

The umpire should be suspended. The coach and it sounds like AD should never be allowed to coach again.

I just hope the player learns from this. Just frustrating that adults (parents in the stands sure seemed to approve of her behavior/decision to throw at another player) have damaged that catcher to the point she would actually do what she did.