Dropped Pitch

[UmpireErnie]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

Okay, next step.

What happens if the batter lays down the bat, takes off toward 1B and the ball rolls against it and stays in fair territory?

Why is batter taking off, she is assuming ball four?

7-6-D does not specify this but I believe this out would be called only if the batter still had the bat in her hand. Otherwise, on a discarded bat I am going to fall back on the distinction of ball hitting the bat vs bat hitting the ball. This rule is designed to penalize a batter who is hitting the ball while outside the box.

If this is going to be ball four, I see no reason why the batter must wait for the ball to reach the plate. As long as her discarding the bat cannot be considered INT it's simply ball four and now the batter isn't a batter she is a batter-runner so 7-6 ("The batter is out:") no longer applies.

Mind you, I like to call outs as much as the next umpire, but..