Baseball Instruction/hit batter outside the box

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Expert: - 5/14/2010


Question
if the batter moves into a pitch outside the batters box or sticks their hand outside the box and gets hit is that a strike, ball or is the batter awarded 1st base.

Answer
Orrin:  Thank you for your question.

In the Federation rule book, Rule 7-3, Section 3, Article 4

Batting Infractions - A batter shall not:  Permit a ball to touch him.

Penalty - The batter remains at bat ( pitch is a ball or a strike ) unless pitch was a third strike or ball four.

The decision on whether the pitch is a ball or strike is determined by the umpire.

If the batter moves into a pitch outside the box, away from the plate, it would be a ball.

If the batter sticks his hand outside the box, in the direction of the plate, umpire may call a strike, determined by the location of the pitch.

Yours in baseball,

Rick

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Rick Bundy

Expertise

I can answer all questions relating to the fundamentals of baseball from t-ball to college, individual and team instruction, game strategy, drills, practice organizaton, coaching philosophies and, last, but not least, the mental game.

Experience

4 years little league 4 years high school baseball( 2 varsity) 2 years junior college baseball 1 summer, Central Illinois Collegiate League, Galesburg, Pioneers 2 years, four year college

Publications
I am the owner/builder of theoleballgame.com, a website for playing and coaching youth baseball.

Education/Credentials
Retired teacher 31 years (retired 4) 36 years high school baseball coaching/15 as a head coach/19 varsity asst, 2010 was the 36th. I am in my 10th year as a coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks Training Centers, the official youth baseball and fast pitch softball camps of The Arizona Diamondbacks.

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