Never Seen This Happen Before — What's The Ruling?
 

I have never seen this happen in almost 40 years of coaching. The umpire ruled promply and definitively, but I have no idea whether the ruling was correct or not. Here is the play:

One out, runner on third. Batter swings and misses and strikes out, with the ball striking her arm and going to the backstop (catcher misses). Runner scores, batter reaches first. Umpire rules that the run can score, but rules batter out.

Seems to me that 1) ball should either be dead, no one can advance; or 2) ball remains alive and everyone can advance. Don't understand why one runner can advance, but not the other.

You didn't specify which ruleset (high school/NFHS, ASA, etc.,), so I'm going to give the ASA answer.

If the batter swings and the ball hits her, it's an immediate dead ball, a called strike, and runners can't advance. If it's strike 3, the batter is out. The rule citation is ASA 8-6-D.

Did the umpire acknowledge that the ball hit the batter?

It's a dead ball strike in just about any code.

If the ball did not hit the batter or if the umpire did not see it, it's an U3K, so the batter could go to 1st.

Looks like either way, the call was wrong.

Nhfs
 

Sorry guys, this was a high school varsity game. NHFS rules

Don't think it really doesn't make a difference, it is the same in all. Any pitched ball that hits any part of the batter's body or uniform is a dead ball, whether they swing or not.

For NFHS the ruling is the same as the one previously given by NCASAUmp.

By using a double negative, do you mean that it does make a difference, or did you just mistype?:D

Pitched ball striking the batter is an immediate dead ball in all situations, all rule sets, both baseball and softball.

Yeah, that's what happens when you edit part of a comment and don't go back and reread the who thing.:o

I'm just kind of amazed that someone could be around this game for 40 years and never have seen a batter get hit by a pitch while swinging at it. :eek:

It's not like it happens a lot, but I might see this once or twice a year (though my typical year is 100+ games of umpiring). It just seems like the odds are that it would come up at least once...

I agree...

2 seasons ago I had a girl (bottom of the order and all that implies) square around to bunt against what was normally a VERY good pitcher. Ball gets away from pitcher though and heads straight for the batters box. Batter tries to bunt it anyway (perhaps in self defense, but the attempt to hit the ball with the bat was obvious to all), she misses for strike 3 and the ball hits her in the NECK.

After 10 minutes of the coach dealing with her, he tells her to go on to first base. It was quite painful to have to explain that not only did she not get first, but that she was out.

Wait for it....
 

Or the whole thing! :)

He si snberginnibg to type liek ai dpo. :D

For a minute there, I thought you were typing something in Danish or Dutch.

Jeg forstod deg ikke! Snakk engelsk, spansk eller engelsk! :p

c what i mean?