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B1 is left-handed. R3. Suicide squeeze is on, and F1 throws a pitch out. B1 throws bat at the ball. F2 steps out to get ball, knocks bat down with right hand, and catches the ball with his glove & tags out the runner.....
Well, the answer is, it all depends.
Where was the catcher when he caught the ball? Did he remain behind the back tip of the plate? If so, this is interference by the batter, because if the bat hit the catcher behind HP, it must have been thrown at the catcher, not at the ball. R3 out, unless there were two outs, then batter is out.
If the catcher stepped up past the back tip of the plate, you have catcher's interference. This is a delayed dead ball. Since the ball was not hit, kill the play, award the batter first, and award any runners that were going on the pitch the next base. In other words, score the run.
UNLESS, the batter stepped across the plate or stepped out of the box while throwing his bat out there. If so, we are back to interference on the batter.
The benefit of the doubt here, on my field, goes to the catcher. As long as he remained behind the back of the plate when getting the pitch, I have to believe that the batter was throwing the bat at the catcher, not at the pitch. INT on the batter, call the runner out (unless there were two outs).
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