Foul Tip

[greymule]

Meets the definition of a foul tip... doesn't it?

I'd say so. I offered a similar possibility in my earlier post. It could happen.

How about this one?

Pitch goes sharp and direct off the bat to the catcher's mitt and rebounds into the air halfway to the mound. F1 dives to catch the ball but instead knocks it toward F2, who catches it in the air. If the ball never hit the ground, you'd have to rule this a foul tip also. Meets the definition.

It is true that though a foul tip could be caught over fair territory, it pretty much has has to hit foul first, though I can imagine, with a batter far forward in the box, a catcher moving up to where she could reach straight out and first touch the ball over the back point of home plate. In NCAA, where the catcher can (if she doesn't interfere) plant her feet farther forward, I can imagine this more easily.

The back point of the plate is 27½ inches from the back line of the batter's box, which is the front line of the catcher's box. If the catcher gets as far forward as ASA allows, her mitt could certainly contact a pitch at a point over the plate. If this is a pitch that has gone sharp and direct off the bat, then "sharp and direct" qualifies the play as a foul tip. Otherwise, if the ball went sharp and direct from the bat to the mitt (over the plate) and then bounced off the mitt and rolled into fair territory, we'd have to call it fair and treat it as a ground ball.