Coach orders batter to stand on plate
 

Had an interesting situation in a U-14 girls FP tournament this weekend. Home team behind by 2 runs with time close to expiring. 2 outs, no one on base and week hitter at plate. Coach orders batter to stand on plate to create 3rd out so that the next inning could be played. PU becomes confused and asks coach why and coach says she wants the 3rd out. PU immediately signals 3rd out and next inning is played and home team, with the extra inning, wins 7-6. Question, PU explained that he called batter out because he did not want her stading on plate with a pitch thrown for obvious reasons. Was this the right call? If not, what would you have done?

"PU becomes confused..."

Sounds like maybe his "confusion" began long before this point in the game. ;)

If the batter is not positioned properly within the batter's box, the umpire should: a) Call time (if the ball is live); b) Direct the player to take the proper position, and; c) Not allow the pitcher to throw a pitch until the batter complies.

In short, if the batter isn't in the box a pitch should never be allowed in the first place. The chance of the batter being hurt for standing on the plate should be zero.

So what if the player listens to her brilliant strategist of a coach and refuses to follow the umpire's directive to get in the box?

If the player refuses to properly position herself within ten seconds, an automatic penalty strike is called. No pitch is required to be thrown.

I suppose this could drag out for thirty seconds, with a third penalty strike eventually being called. The end result would be the same- an out- but that isn't really the "time killer" the coach is looking for and could possibly take long enough to play out that the game clock would expire.

And it could get even uglier. The umpire has the power to eject a player or coach who willfully disobeys his directives. That might be a last resort, but is a possible outcome. By the time all that is sorted out it's likely the clock will be expired!

Did she make contact with the ball while standing on home plate, or with at least one foot completely outside the lines of the batter's box? If not, then no, this was not the correct call. The correct call would have been to not allow a pitch to be thrown until the batter is in the batter's box properly. The best thing to do in this case to get the out is when the pitcher is ready to deliver the pitch, have the batter switch from one box to the other.

And obviously BretMan beat me to the punch. I must have begun typing my response about the time he was finishing his!

Speaking ASA, I simply would have ordered the batter to put her feet completely in the batter's box. Calling an out right away doesn't sound right to me, as I don't know of any specific rule that would cover this. I'd possibly toss the coach if he intentionally gave instructions to a batter to put herself in an unsafe position like this, simply to either hasten or delay the game.

I would ask the coach if he is aware that an act obviously designed to delay or hasten the game is illegal, and that the penalty is a forfeit?

It is likely my discussion with the coach would have resulted in time expiring! ;)

Whatever, there is no rule that allows the batter to be called out in this situation. As the others have said, the process is warning, followed by a called strike, another warning, another called strike, and then possibly another warning and third strike, or ejection and a call for the next batter.

The home team should not have been allowed to use this approach to skip over the bottom of their order and hasten getting to the next inning. The visitors got jobbed. JMO.