The spirit or letter of the rules?

[C'monBlue]

Had an ugly play today in a 16U tournament. Last inning in a one-run game, 1-2 count. Catcher calls a pitch-out. Everyone in the park knows it's a pitch-out except the pitcher, who throws a beautiful fastball, belt-high on the outer half of the plate. The catcher has to reach way back to catch it before attempting to throw the runner out. In spite of the ugliness, I rang the batter up. Needless to say, everyone went nuts.

I was just wondering how our local big dogs view a play like that. Do you make the catcher earn the strike too, or do you follow the letter of the law because a strike is a strike?

Just curious.