batter kicks the ball out of play

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by Ran.D

I seriously don’t understand why the batter would not be out for interference regardless of intent. Maybe I’m confusing softball rules, which I call more than baseball.

Again, here was my situation – runner on third, catcher bobbles the pitch, batter (with 1-1 count) kicks the ball, run comes home and scores.

The rule applies to the batter – who hinders the catcher. He is not yet a batter – runner.

Now, the rules do say a BATTER RUNNER is out when he intentionally interferes with the catcher on a dropped third strike or intentionally interferes with a throw, or thrown ball.

What am I missing?

Sounds to me like what you're missing is the word INTENTIONALLY in the rules you just paraphrased. The OP is a sitch where the interference was UN-intentional. PS- this is identical in most softball codes too.