dropped third strike

Question
I was watching an ASA 18U tournament when this situation came up. One out with R1 on second. B3 swings and misses third strike which bounces into catchers chest protector and into the leg of the batter leaving the box. Plate umpire ruled batter hit by ball out of the box - runner out. I thought this was only true on a batted ball. Should it have been ruled interference-batter out or is it similar to a runner being hit by the ball thrown from a defensive player? Thank you for your time.

Answer
Hi Rick,

Thank you for your question.  Whoops!  I'm not sure what Blue was thinking here when he called out the batter-runner for interference.  The b-r runner was merely doing what she was entitled to do on a dropped third strike with fewer than two outs with 1B unoccupied: run to 1B.  Since the pitch was errant, the contact between the ricocheted softball and the b-r's leg was nothing more than incidental.  

The correct action for the umpire to have taken would have been to either do absolutely nothing and merely observe the rest of the (live ball) action, OR signal and verbalize "safe," alerting the game's participants that he did in fact see the play, but that there was no infraction.  

Yes, you're right, your play is similar to a runner being hit by a ball thrown by a defensive player.

Scott Kelly