Illegally batted ball... am I the only one...

[UMP25]

Originally Posted by mbyron

I have seen only one umpire that I admire call this, and that was a slap bunt by a LH batter who had both feet out of the box and was 5 feet toward the mound when he bunted an off-speed pitch that screwed up his (the batter's) timing. Granny could have called that one, which is why PU had to.

And those are the situations where I call this. Believe it or not, I actually had a right-handed batter attempt to bunt on a pitch that was WAY outside--in the other batter's box. He quite literally jumped across the plate and smacked the ball (foul) when he was in the other batter's box. After I banged him out, I had to give the head coach an "A" for creative thinking when, in response to my explaining that he wasn't in the batter's box when he contacted the ball, the guy said, "But he was in the batter's box when he hit the ball, Randy. It doesn't specify which box you know."