About Geoff Expertise Huge baseball trivia lover! I will attempt to answer anything you can think of when it comes to major league baseball. I have a large reference library of all things baseball. Try to stump me!
Question Hey im a baseball player in high school and a few of my friends were argueing about this question.
If a pitched ball hits the dirt, then the batter hits the ball after it has hit the dirt, is that ball still in play? if so, what would need to happen to make it not a live ball in play?
Answer Hi Jordan,
Thanks for writing.
Just because the pitch hits the dirt doesn't make it a dead ball. A batter can swing away and put the ball in play.
I can think of a couple of things that could happen to make it not a live ball in play though:
1) The batter bats illegally by not standing in the batter's box
2) the ball hits a runner from third sliding into home plate before the batter makes contact. The ball is dead once it hits the runner.
A fair ball put into play ball can be quickly taken out of play if:
the batter hits it again with his bat in fair territory it would be called a dead ball,
or if it hits the batter in fair terrotory the ball would be dead.
