bat leaves batter's hands (Part II)

[David Emerling]

Situation: R1, fewer than 2 outs, no count on the batter. The hit & run is on. The defense guesses right and throws a pitchout. (same situation as the other thread)

Let's change one thing. This time the batter steps outside the batter's box while swinging. His foot is completely outside the batter's box at the time he hits the ball (in A) and when he hits the catcher's glove (in B & C). As before, the catcher remains legally positioned, neither on or in front of the plate.

The play is repeated below with no changes from the previous:

Play: The batter lunges at the outside pitch, the bat comes out of his hands and then he ...
(A) hits a fair ball
(B) misses the ball but the bat hits the catcher's glove (before the catcher had an opportunity to catch the pitch) resulting in a passed ball with the runner advancing to 3rd.
(C) misses the ball but the bat hits the catcher's glove (after the catcher had secured the pitch), knocking the ball loose and resulting in no play possible on R1.

The bat leaving the batter's hands appeared to be more a result of lunging and over-reaching than any obvious attempt to simply throw his bat. Or, would that matter?

Ruling for (A), (B), and (C)?

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

[Edited by David Emerling on Nov 14th, 2005 at 12:15 PM]