Pitch Ball bouncing in front of the plate

Question
Hello,
During one of our Instructional games (age 7 & 8) a player pitch ball bounced in front of the plate and the batter swung and missed. The coach's ruled the play as a foul ball.  Personally, I thought the call should be a dead ball and a strike for the batter.  (The batter is swing, so he should be charged for that swing.)  What is the right call?

Answer
While your league may have some weird league specific rules, in pro, college, high school, and all youth programs that I've been associated with, this is a strike and the ball would remain live.  Any swing without contact at a legally pitched ball counts as a strike on the batter.  It doesn't matter if the pitcher threw the ball down the middle, 4 hopped it to the plate, or threw it over the back stop.  As to live ball or dead ball after the swing and miss, if the league allows stealing of any kind, the ball would remain live allowing baserunners to advance at their own risk.  If the league doesn't have stealing, then the ball would be dead.  The only reason they would call a foul ball in the situation would be if the batter touched the pitched ball with his bat, or if there is one of those weird park specific rules.  I hope this answered your question.