No grousing...DD's team won game...just hoping for some after the fact information.

Batter hit the pitch..travelled approx 2 feet toward third...hit dirt once...bounced into the air in an arc going across the foul line....as it was coming down, catcher (in fair territory close to the line) touches it with glove but does not catch it...ball then hits the dirt just across the line into foul territory.

My thinking..ball was hit fair but did not pass third before going foul....ball then touched in foul territory.....this is a foul ball.

Umpire called fair ball...when questioned, explained ruling as...the ball hit dirt in fair and was touched by a "player in fair territory" in the air....if it had hit the dirt again untouched he said it would have been foul...if catcher had been in foul territory and touched it, it would have been foul.

My question...doesn't the fair/foul ruling depend on actual location of the ball in relation to the field...not the physical location of the player that touches it? It just sounded wrong....thanks in advance for the explanation.

You are right in your thinking .
The ump gave his/her decision based on judgement of where they thought the ball was and may have not clarified that point .
It seems it was a fairly ( no pun ) close call and I would say the plate ump should have been in a better position than yourself .
The good point is you know what fair/foul is . Your fist step to Bluedom

Absolutely, but unless you were the catcher, you really have no angle better than that of the umpire and even the catcher's would be suspect as she is searching for the ball, not the line.

I would hope the umpire just didn't use the right words in explaining the call, though he used many more than I would have.

This is not the easiest call for an umpire to see especially if it was hit by a right-handed batter.