Uncaught 3rd strike
 

My DD and I were watching game the other night. The pitcher was dominating and the batter, with no prayer of ever hitting the ball, had two strikes on her. The next pitch slipped from the pitchers grip and flew several feet over the catchers outstretched glove for ball 1. My daughter turned to me and said "if she was smart she'd'a swung at that pitch and run to 1st on a dropped third strike". I've been away from softball so long now I'm unsure of the rule. Was my daughter right? Or does rule only apply to pitch that's actually in the strike zone. Thanks.

You don't mention the ruleset, age of the players and situation on the field (i.e. how many outs, runners on, etc) but, your DD was correct. If the batter had swung at the ball, strike 3, and the filed situation correct, she could attempt to advance to 1B for an uncaught 3K.

Thanks...just as I thought...have you ever seen this actually happen? (Fed, 1 out, 1B vacant, R1 on 3B, Sectional 1st round with seed 1 versus seed 12).

Seen what? An uncaught third strike? Yeah - about 10 times a week. Or did you just mean someone swinging at one on purpose? Maybe twice or 3 times a year.

I wasn't referring to a generic uncaught third strike...you silly goose. I meant how often have you seen the sitch that I described in the OP. I've seen plenty of games (mostly 16U and HS FP) but can't recall anyone taking advantage of this fairly obvious opportunity...

16U and HS, you probably have less of those "obviously over the catcher's head" pitches than you do at 12u and 14U.

I've got a good example of a girl taking advantage of this that I saw a couple of weeks ago at a game of my sister-in-law. The catcher from my sis-in-law's team, who is about the smartest player (softball-wise) that I've seen in a long time, realized as the pitch was about half-way to her that it was going to hit the ground in front of the plate and swung then immediately took off for first and continued to 2nd. Although the catcher blocked the ball well and came up throwing, I think she was a little caught off guard and air mailed the throw into center allowing the runner that was on 3rd to score. The umpires got together and eventually decided that it was perfectly legal, but I was a little skeptical considering she left before the ball ever actually hit the ground or was anywhere near the plate. I discussed it with the umps afterwards and our discussion centered on the issue of whether it was actually an attempt to hit the ball (thus a strike) or just a swing of the bat. I know the guys pretty well, and while they hadn't even considered calling it a ball, we all got a good laugh when we recalled that this went down witha a full-count making the result pretty much the same either way.

Good story...but now I'm curious...if the pitcher flubs the pitch and throws it into the ground, but it travels past the plate, then it is an 'uncaught' pitch by virtue of it hitting the ground before the catcher snares it...eligible for 'uncaught third strike' rule if all other conditions are met. But what if the pitch has no chance of making to the plate and the batter swings with all other conditions rmet for 'uncaught third strike' rule and before blue declares 'no pitch'. Is this allowed?

If she swung that early, are we sure it was an attempt to hit the ball?

And PS - if there's NO PITCH, then there's nothing to swing at, right?

That's my dilemma...how can you judge 'intent' here, especially if the batter swings while the ball is in the air and before it thuds to the ground half way between the plates? :confused:

Surely you have more difficult judgement calls than this one... What you describe REALLY sounds obvious ... I'm sure there are closer ones that are greyer - and sometimes that's why we get paid - to make a judgement on something.

Just remember - it is a strike if the batter swings the bat in an effort to hit the ball. The one you describe is an easier non-strike than calling a ball on a bunt where they leave the bat out there and don't move it toward the pitch (and that one's pretty easy).