- Feb 3, 2011
- 1,880
- 48
I've replayed it a few times in my head and the best I can come up with is that, even though there was a slight hesitation, the umpire anticipated the swing and decided to continue with that call, despite the fact that the batter stopped her swing. Umpire observed what she observed, though, and at 14-15 years of age, she wasn't going to get a hard time from me about it. When you break it all down, we merely disagreed about what she saw.If the batter swings, it is a strike. Cannot be anything else, especially a HBP. A batter could swing, hit the ball off his/her fist over a 200' fence and it is still nothing more than a dead ball strike.
The league president got back to me and said he thought the last out could finish the at-bat. I looked through our rules of play and found the following:
e. The umpire (not coach or manager) must declare the player as an injured player, and this must be noted as such in the official scorebook.
f. If the injured player is a batter, the player who made the last out may assume the strike count so the “at-bat” may be completed. If the injured player is a runner, the player who made the last out may take her place on the base she has reached safely.
So, technically the umpire was correct by ASA Rule 4, Section 1 D (shorthanded rule), but was mistaken per our league rules.
What our league rules do not address, however, is whether the injured player would be allowed to return once she was feeling better, so we should remedy that in the off-season. In this instance, we benefited from the fact that she did not leave the game.
As for the foul calls on the bunts, I have instructed my player that she should've been called out, just so that she knows what the proper rule is in the future. But, she also knows that we do not call our own fouls or outs.