Can a ball in the dirt be a strike?

[WestMichBlue]

ASA Women's FP. Confusion in the offensive dugout; no batter appears. PU is getting impatient; yells for a batter, none appear.

Finally tells F1 to pitch as batter is coming out of dugout. F1 throws two bounces to F2, PU calls strike.

Def coach yells "That's in the dirt. You can't call that a strike. You have to call the pitch where it is!"

PU says "No matter where it goes, I can call it a strike."

Who is right? (Can you answer without looking in your rule book? I couldn't get it right until I looked it up.)

WMB