Did we blow this one or not.
 

I'm BU in C position with R1 on 3rd. Right handed batter, pitcher who uses tons of junk on ball, she has EXEMPTIONAL drop ball.
Pitch comes to B1 who swings and makes contact, B1 is also moving at the same time, batted ball shoots out about 10ft contacts the ground and comes straight back towards home plate, B1 had immediately let the bat go. Bat and ball make contact clearly in the air. I saw it plain as day, hesatated a second to see if my partner was going to call it then I killed the play. Partner comes out looking at me so I told him bat contacted ball. After a very brief meeting in which I told him I could not tell for sure if contact was over fair terriotory or not. He said if there was deffinet contact it was in fair,( he had said he did not see contact as B1 had started to cut in front of his view but he heard it) as he had full view of the foul line and the ball never appeared near the line so he ruled batter out.
OC comes to discuss it and he tells the coach, "My partner saw the contact & I'm 100 % sure contact was in fair terriotory so batter is out. OC says that batter was still in batters box at time of contact but PU said since bat was in the air at time of contact, not in batters hands then B! is out as long as contact is in fair.
Question 1, was this handled right mechanically as a crew.
2 if batter is still considered in box does it matter if bat is out of hand attime of contact.

I work under the CASA rule book but a lot of our rules and mechanics are the same so any feed back would be appreciated.

Dale

You got it right on both counts. Good Job.

I think there is a bigger question here. If the batter simply dropped the bat, your description sounds as if the ball came back to the bat.

Is it reasonable to hold the batter accountable for discarding the bat in an area the ball probable should not have been only to have the ball hit the bat?

I was wondering the same thing.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Depending on the level of play, you just might. After all, the batter intentionally released the bat AND had full control of where they released it.
Bat hits ball or the bat & ball meet in the air, I've got an out. Ball hits bat, I've got nothing.

I am pretty sure I would be ruling this a live ball. The batter has discarded the bat and the ball returns backwards and hits the bat.. the bat did not his the ball.

Player position box/out of box has nothing to do with it.

SInce it was agreed the ball was fair, this seems very much a live ball.. or very probably such.

I should have stated that the ball had come towards the batter in the same motion when conacted the ground, it shot upwards and arced to wards the batter so when the batter dropped her bat it was in a forward type motion so when the contact was made, the bat was going towards the ball and the ball was going towards the bat.
Dale

That is the information we needed. If the bat was moving towards the ball, out is the call.

Reasonable or not, as I recently got schooled on in another thread, by rule the batter is out.
________
DEPAKOTE WITHDRAW

Not sure what you mean.. you either have a judgment that the bat went into the ball and an out OR the ball into the bat and a live ball.

Made it kinda simple to me.

As I learned in the other thread and confirmed later in the rulebook: a batter is out when the bat hits the ball a second time. Exception, the batter is not out if the bat is on the ground and the ball hits the bat.

In this case the bat is not on the ground so the exception does not apply.
________
Glass Pipe

I did not catch that the bat was not on the ground until jel and you pointed it out. You are correct! Thanks.

Does that mean all the confusion in this thread was because someone missed

"Bat and ball make contact clearly in the air" and
"bat was in the air at time of contact"

in the OP?

I don't believe that was the cause of confusion. I think the lack of the additional information (bat moving toward the ball) which was provided afterwards is what caused the confusion.