DEFO bats out-of-order

[David Emerling]

Originally posted by Dakota

The problem with DEFO batting illegally as B10 as the basis for making a ruling, there is no B10. The legal batting order positions are B1-B9. If she is coming to bat, it must be for one of those positions (legally or illegally, in order or out of order). [/B]

I think I understand what you're saying. When the DEFO comes to bat improperly as B10, the only way to interpret it is that it is an unreported substitute for B1. And, an illegal substitute at that!

Fine, that would be easy to handle. But once the DEFO has batted and a pitch has been thrown to the next batter, rectifying the situation becomes problematic.

If the DEFO is on base and her hit advanced or scored other runners, what do you do about that considering that the count on the current batter is 1-1?

When B1 comes to bat immediately following B10 (the DEFO) and has already received a pitch, how do you handle the claim that B1 is now batting out of order?

This is pretty sticky.

David Emerling
Memphis, TN