[Forgive the repost, which I posted to the College Softball board. Wanted an umpire's opinion on it, so reposting here.]
This occurred this weekend in the Hawaii / ND State game, in the Tuscon regional:
ND State batting. 2 outs, 2 on. R1 at second. R2 at first.
Ground ball directly towards F4. As she's fielding it in the baseline, R2 crashes into her about 10 feet before reaching 2nd base. Both F4 and R2 fall down. Umpire makes the "safe" signal indicating no Int, presumably because in his judgment, the ball reached the fielder before the collision occurred. In the confusion, F6 picks up the loose ball, and tags R2 before she could reach 2nd base. Umpire calls her out. During that time, R1 is racing around and clearly scores BEFORE F6 applied the tag.
Hawaii Coach Coolen argues the non-INT call and gets tossed. The 3rd out was made at 2B. Players leave the field. But they allowed the run to score because it occured before the 3rd out. QUESTION: Because it's a force situation at 2nd base, should the run have counted?
I don't think so. I think Coach Coolen should have argued against the run scoring instead of getting tossed for arguing a judgement INT call. Thoughts?