12U Fastpitch rule

Question
Hi,

We had an odd ruling in a game we had last night, which many of us believe was a wrong call on the umpire's behalf. Our team was on the field with two outs against the opposing team. The batter had two strikes. Our pitcher threw a low pitch which hit the dirt in front of the plate, but the batter swung. The umpire called a strike and the batter out. Our girls came off the field, but the coach for the opposing team had her girls advance and the batter take first, because the catcher did not catch the ball on the hop off the ground. In other words, she treated it like a dropped third strike. This resulted in the umpire changing his call and the opposing team scored an additional two runs from this play before our girls could even take the field again. We believe that because the ball was in the dirt, the dropped third strike rule does not apply, first of all. Secondly, once the umpire made the call and the fielding team came off the field, the out is done and the inning is officially over.

Please help!

Answer
Hi Doug,

First of all this would be a D3K  regardless if the catcher caught the ball off the hop or not.

ASA 8- 1 THE BATTER BECOMES A BATTER-RUNNER..
B. (Fast Pitch) When the catcher fails to catch the third strike before the ball
touches the ground and there are;
1. Fewer than two outs and first base is not occupied at the time of the
pitch, or
2. Any time there are two outs.

It really should be called an uncaught 3rd strike, but it's not.  The catcher doesn't have to drop it they just need not to catch it before it hits the ground.  Obviously a ball that hits the ground before it gets to the catcher will under the proper rule always be a D3k.

The correct mechanic is to call "strike 3" on this.  I can't tell you how many times people also think they heard the umpire say "batter out" when they didn't.  If the PU did not call the batter out I have all play that happened regardless of what the defense did, standing.

If the PU also said "batter out" did it put the defense at risk, in my mind it did. Now what to do?  There is no good answer.  I would probably put the b-r on 1st and the other runners back where they were and call for the next batter.

Mark