Runner hit by a deflected, batted ball

Question
We had a call in a game the other day that I believe was incorrect.  Hoping you can clarify.  Runner on first, batter hit a grounder to the second baseman.  2nd baseman made contact with the ball, deflecting it slightly sideways.  The runner was behind and to her left about 2 feet with no view of the new path of the ball.  The deflected ball hit the runner's foot as she passed behind the fielder and the umpire called her out.  Reading the rule books for all three major associations it seems that, since the ball had come in contact with a fielder's glove, and no other fielder was anywhere close, and therefore no one else had a play, the runner should not have been out.  Can you shed some light here?  Did we get a bad call?

Answer
Hi LC,

Thank you for your question and for a good description of the play.  Yes, you did get a bad call.  When the runner was struck by the deflected ball while she was legally advancing from 1B to 2B, she was taken "off the hook" for runner interference, EVEN IF there would have been another fielder who was close by and/or could have made a play and/or could have made an out by fielding the deflected ball.  Since the runner was behind F4, this should have been a particularly easy call to make for an umpire well-versed in the rules, and was a "protestable" incorrect ruling.  After the play, the umpire could have smoothed over the offense's ruffled feathers, however, by awarding the batter-runner 1B, placing the runner hit by the deflection on 2B, and nullifying her out.  You didn't mention any other runners.

I don't know what three rules books you read, but here is ASA's version of the play, Rule 8-8-F: RUNNER IS NOT OUT.  "When a runner is hit by a fair batted ball after it touches, or is touched by, any fielder, including the pitcher, and the runner could not avoid contact with the ball."

Scott Kelly