Batter (or someone!) should have been out?

[MsDinosaur]

We were playing USSSA rather than ASA last weekend and I'm not sure of all the rule differences.

DD was catching and there was a runner on 2nd looking to steal third. Right handed batter in the box. Pitch comes in a little low, runner goes, DD blocks it in the dirt and comes up trying to throw to third behind the batter. Clueless? batter steps out of box and takes a quick practice swing?? which hits DD on the backswing, knocking the bat out of the batter's hands. Batter's standing there outside of the box, bat's lying in the dirt outside of the box... The blues ended up letting the runner stay on third, giving the batter a ball and letting her continue her at-bat. DD's gear took the hit and she wasn't hurt; she and the pitcher tossed the ball back and forth while her coach came out to talk to the umps, but still.... Isn't this considered a no-no?

I'm not even complaining about the other batter who hit her in the head with a bat when she dove for another low one. That girl was still in the box at least. That team was pretty good at making the throw to third difficult, but most of the time they were reasonably subtle about it: staying in the box, just shifting around and managing to get their body or bat in the way.

 

[shockcoach]

Yep, the runner should have been out. The coach needs to learn to protest.

 

[Comp]

Unless the batter was out on strikes, the batter committed interference and is out, not the runner. Runner would be returned to 2nd base. If the batter happened to be out on strikes, then the runner closest to home would be called out.

 

[shockcoach]

Unless the batter was out on strikes, the batter committed interference and is out, not the runner. Runner would be returned to 2nd base. If the batter happened to be out on strikes, then the runner closest to home would be called out.

You're correct. I had the penalty wrong.

 

[FPMark]

Did your DD atempt to make a throw? Did the throw hit the bat or the batter? If she didn't make the throw,or the bat hit her after the throw, I'm not sure they can call interference. One of my catchers got hit in this exact situation last year. She threw the ball and got hit by a practice swing during her followthru. Ump said she got hit after releasing the ball, so no interference. Not sure if that was correct or not, but it kinda made since.

 

[BretMan]

OP said that catcher was "trying to throw" when the bat nailed her, so I would say that a throw was hindered.

Other comments on this thread...

That this batter was out of the box is irrelevant on this play. Even if in the box, if the batter does anything besides hold her position she's liable for an interference call. That is, even if this batter was in the box, this would still be interference.

USSSA still uses the baseball-derived rule with respect to who is out on batter's interference. If less than two are out, then it is the runner who is called out on BI. If two outs, the the batter is out. This is a marked difference from, say, ASA and high school where it is always the batter who is out.