DEFO bats out-of-order

[David Emerling]

ASA rules:

A team is playing with 10 players, DEFO/DP. The DEFO is listed tenth in their line-up. The DP is batting 3rd.

The first time through the batting order, the DEFO improperly comes to bat after the 9th hitter under the mistaken belief that she is the 10th hitter.

After one pitch is thrown to her, the defense says, "What gives?"

How should the umpire handle this?

In my opinion, this is *not* a batting out of order situation.

Second part of this question:

Same situation as above except the defense does not catch the fact that the DEFO is improperly batting. The DEFO strikes out and the leadoff hitter comes to the plate.

The leadoff hitter walks. It then dawns on the defense that something is wrong. The defense claims that the batter who just walked has batted out-of-order.

What is the ruling?

David Emerling
Memphis, TN