Infield fly situation

Question
0 outs. runners on 1st and 2nd.  Lazy one hopper to second baseman turns into 4-6-3 double play. Runner on second advances to 3rd base.  Post play, umpire says he called infield fly, yet neither fielders or runners were aware. At the end of the play, the batter was called out, the lead runner was left on third, and the "forced out runner" was brought back on the field to first. Should this have been treated as an intentionally dropped line drive?  Should the trail runner be called out for leaving the field? Should the double play stand? or should the runners be split on first and third as they were?

Answer
Hi randy,

I didn't see the play so here's just some guidelines

A line drive cannot by rule be an IF, however a "blooper" can

An intentionally dropped ball must be 1st caught and then intentionally dropped.

After play stops the umpire can call an IF if they felt they made a mistake by not calling 1.  In that case we call the batter out and protect the runners from jeopardy. This seems not be the case here.

You stated the umpires said he called an IF, if so who called the DP, somebody's got to call the outs, a BU?.  If R1 was called out by an umpire on a supposed force at 2nd and then leaves the field of play I can understand why they would do that.  Possibly we are also in "time" when he left as the PU is explaining the call.  Since a runner can advance at their own risk on an IF and this one wasn't caught I would have R1 on 3rd and very possibly R2 at 1st (this is the sticky one depending on what happened).

mark