Illegal Ball Discovered

[jdmara]

NFHS

After the bottom half of the inning is complete, the home team pitcher comes to the mound and takes his warm-up pitches. After a few pitches, the batter hits an inside pitch off the handle of the bat to ground out. The next batter comes to bat and hits it off the cup of the bat and grounds out as well.

My partner (BU) went to check the baseball as the offensive manage asked me to check the baseball as well. We discovered a rubber coated baseball (like one used in little league). Running through the previous at bats in my mind I did not recall a foul ball where I would have put an additional ball in play. The 10 y/o batboy was the last person I recall handing me any baseballs.

Without specific knowledge of when the ball was put in play, I took the ball out of play and continued on. Thoughts?

-Josh