[NCASAUmp]

Yeah, the PU admitted to me that he just had a brain fart. What he actually meant to say was, "dead ball." If this had happened a few years back, the PU would have been sort of right, as the ball would have been dead for the violating ASA 6-1-? (I forget the article). An automatic ball would be awarded to the batter. However, a couple of years ago, ASA removed the part about it being a dead ball, allowing the batters to hit a pitch that was delivered without the required 1 second pause.

Since the PU effectively killed the play by declaring "no pitch" (when he meant to say "dead ball"), we brought the batter back to the plate and counted the illegal pitch. We told the OC that he had the opportunity to protest the call if he thinks we got it wrong, which he declined. The batter then popped up for an out. Fortunately, the team ended up winning the game handily, so the bad call had minimal bearing on the game (unless you're one of those butterfly theory kind of guys).