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I can see both senarios here.. and it's going to come down to our judgement each time a sich like this happens.
If a batter throws an arm up to sheild herself from or deflect a ball that is going to most likely hit her anyway I believe it is still a HBP. She was making an attempt to avoid being hit, or at least be hit on the arm rather than the body. Off you go to 1B.
However, the sitch Tony Brown described above is a different call entirely, where the batter reaches out and makes contact with a ball that she had otherwise not been touched by. Dead ball, ball or strike as may be, possible interference if she takes away an oppertounity for F2 to make an out on a runner.
Judgement on part of the blue. The fun part of the job.
[Edited by UmpireErnie on May 24th, 2005 at 09:44 PM]
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