Bunt rule

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by khumbert45

I'm looking to settle something me and a co-worker were discussing today about bunting. In acquiring my license to do high school games last year, I remember them saying that a player had to "offer at" the pitch if it is out of the strike zone for it to be a strike.

In looking at the NFHS rule book, it says nothing about "offering at" a pitch. It defines a bunt as "a fair ball in which the batter does not swing to hit the ball, but holds the bat in the path of the ball to tap it slowly to the infield."

So my question is, if a kid squares to bunt, the ball goes out of the strike zone, and the kid doesn't move his bat to try making contact, is that a ball? I was always taught as a kid that you had to pull the bat back if it was out of the strike zone and that if I kept the bat out there, then it would be called a strike. Was this just inaccurate coaching?

Thanks ahead of time for whoever can provide some clarification.

What you were taught as a kid is not the current correct rule for NFHS (depending on ruleset, it may have been the rule in your organization when you were a kid). The words Offer At are not in the book, but swing is. Basically, for a pitch out of the strike zone to be a strike, the batter must attempt to hit it.