catcher obstruction

Question
In a girls 16U FP game there was a play where the runner on third was attempting to score on an over throw to third base.  The third basemen was in recovering the ball in foul territory and throwing the ball to home.  The catcher was positioned about 2 feet (3 ft at most)up the line from home plate and in position to catch the ball coming from the third basemen.  The runner is about half way down the line while the ball is in flight.  The runner stops, loses her balance and falls to the ground where the catcher takes a step or two then tags her out.  The umpires call was that the catcher was obstructing the plate impeding the runners path to the plate and causing her to stop.  Which he then called her safe at home.  Not that the runner was stopping to prevent from being tagged out or to return to third base but stopping because the catcher was blocking the plate.  This occured with 2 outs in the inning and allowed for 2 additional runs to be scored there after.

Answer
Hi John,

Thank you for your question.  I'm sure you've heard this before: one of the toughest calls for an umpire is the (defensive) obstruction call!  In a split second, the umpire has to ascertain the location of the ball, the position of the defender and whether or not they are actually obstructing the runner, and the position of the runner and whether or not they are actually being obstructed.  It is a JUDGMENT CALL on the part of the umpire.  There is no set distance at which a runner is considered to be too far away from a defender to be obstructed by that defender.  It does seem that the runner breaking for home was too far away from the catcher to be obstructed by her, but not necessarily, so you just have to live with the umpire's judgment in this case.  As the defensive head coach, though, I would have had something else to discuss with the umpire.  Awarding the runner home when she was put out "by a mile" doesn't seem to be the correct award.  Third base seems to be the base the runner would have reached had there been no obstruction, but again, it's a JUDGMENT CALL.

Scott Kelly