[Dakota]

Originally posted by JEL
Yep, Foul Ball.

Situation from mon night, I was BU in slot had R1, PU is new this season, (doing a good job, but still new). Pitch high, and inside, batter bails, ball hits bat and rolls 4' in front of plate. PU comes up with an immediate "FOUL BALL" and I see a very distressed look on his face. I begin also to call "dead ball, foul" my aim was to take some of the heat off the new guy. Defensive coach was livid, didn't matter that a wild pitch became a strike, and runner did not advance, he felt wronged. Could have been an easy out, but R1 was at 2B before ball was retrived, don't know if throw would have been good, F1 finally got to ball, batter did not run, and no throw was attempted.

How would you have played this one? (PU did tell coach he made wrong call, but had to live with it)

He was correct that he had to live with it, and I like your echoing of his call - good partering.

He needs to learn that there is no hurry required in making any kind of dead ball call - if the ball is dead, whatever happens is moot - so holding off to be sure is a good thing when the situation is just a bit funky.