bunted foul ball caught

[SamNVa]

Dakota said it all... or most of it.

Too many people get hung up on the ball going above the batter's head. What the rule says is that if the ball goes above the batter's head, it can't be a foul tip. It does not say that if it does not go above the batter's head that it can't be a caught foul ball. As Dakota said, all three criteria must be met for the batted ball to be considered a foul tip. If any of the three criteria is not met, then you have a caught batted ball in-flight and the batter is out, with the exception of the batted ball that goes sharp and direct to some part of the catcher's body other than her hand or glove and is subsequently caught. This ball is specifically declared to be a foul ball.

While I'm up here (on the soapbox) I would also like to say that a batted ball which is caught inflight over foul territory is NOT a foul ball; it is a caught fly ball. The important distinction is that a foul ball is a dead ball whereas a caught fly is a live ball. Thus the ball described above is a foul ball (dead ball) by rule even though it was caught inflight.

--Sam