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NFHS used to define a legal catch as a ball caught "in-flight." And "in-flight" was defined as a batted, thrown, or pitched ball that had not touched the ground. However, NFHS lost that catch definition when they copied ASA a couple years ago. Surprisingly, both organizations still define "in-flight," but I don't know where it is used anymore.
Anyway, today you get at a legal catch backwards. For NFHS it is NOT a catch if it is a TRAP. One of the Trap definitions is a "pitched ball that is a strike but touches the ground on a short hop before being caught by the pitcher. So it is not the Dropped third strike rule; it's not the Un-caught Third Strike Rule; it is the Trapped Third Strike Rule!
Interestingly, ASA defines a trapped ball the same, but does not say that a trapped ball is not a catch! (We just assume it to be true.) And ASA does not say that if the ball touches the ground it is not a catch. But we all know that it is not a catch, so we are not going to worry about a silly little detail like not being in the rule book!
Whatever, forget about trying to define this rule by "the catch" or failure to catch. Just go to Rule 8 in either NFHS or ASA and read that a batter becomes a batter-runner when the catcher fails to catch the third strike before the ball touches the ground . . . . . . . Simple!
And in ASA it is simply called The Third Strike Rule.
WMB
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