[SAump]

High school JV team playing at home with their best pitcher on the mound and an 8-10 run lead after two innings of work. Next inning, F1 starts around the edges and most of his pitches are thrown either letter high or mid-calf low. He walks 2 batters immediately within 8-11 pitches. Well, I am not gonna sit back and give away 3 BOBs in a row if I can help it and call the closest pitch I have seen in a while a strike. Now the pressure is on and B3 manages to bloop one over the infield to load the bases. I now have a legitimate rally on my hands.

The next batter squares around to bunt and guess where this pitcher decides to unload his next pitch? He throws it right at the batters face. Luckily for the batter he quickly stood up {out of fear?} and brought the handle of the bat up immediately to block the ball. Remember his right hand is holding the barrel of the bat out over the plate. He never let go of the bat. Ball meets left HAND near the knob of the bat and dribbles foul. I am cringing the whole time thinking that when this kid turns around, at best he's gonna have a sore hand and at worse a swollen lip or some missing teeth. The kid turns around and tells me that the ball hit him on the hand and that he is okay. I'm delighted that I am not calling an ambulance and properly award him first base.

I begin to think to myself, this kid earned that trip the hard way, he just doesn't know how lucky he is yet. Well the kid looks confused and appears to want to get back into the batter's box. Now I begin thinking to myself as to whether or not this innocent boy considered that a legitimate bunt attempt? I look up to see the boy's head coach coming to the plate. I begin to think, good, he's coming to check to see if his boy is alright. A good coach would be concerned for the safety of his players in a situation like this. The coach passes him by and walks up to me and tells me in a loud voice for all to hear, "The ball struck him on the hand."

I look at the boy once again and award him first base. Hell, he couldn't hit this pitcher with two good hands. I quietly explain to his coach what I saw and tell him to trust me, that boy earned the base for getting hit by the pitch. I can hear the home team begin to stir in the background. Sure, the bases are loaded and they want the young man to bat. I can't believe the OC would put me in this situation. He couldn't be happy his team scored 1 run off an overwhelming pitcher who lost a shutout. He had to pretend to be a coach and come out and make me look like a doofus in front of the home team. The coach never had a clue and still believes that I made the wrong call.