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Ahead of this weeks playoffs I was looking for a ruling on the Half Swing/Bunt* situation that seems to present itself quite frequently. Many times throughout the season, there have been instances where female batters have preformed what can be best described as a Half Swing, either intentionally or otherwise, resulting in the ball landing a few feet in front of home plate...giving themselves more then ample time to run it out for a base hit. If the Umpire deems that the player intentionally half swung/bunted, what it the correct call? Is it an automatic out, or treated as a foul ball? And, perhaps more importantly, will an Umpire make this call?
Thanks very much. |
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Joe,
Good question. A few factors come into play here as a half swing and a bunt are not necessarily considered the same thing.
A bunt is a batted ball which has been intentionally met with the bat, ie. a player squares up with the bat over the plate before the ball has arrived and taps the ball ideally into the infield.
A full swing, half-swing or even a check swing are all considered a swing, by definition. You always see baseball and fast pitch batters foul off with a check swing with two strikes and it is not called a bunt.
In slo-pitch, we as umpires have to judge whether a half swing is considered intentional or not as to call it a bunt or swing. I think that one has to quickly judge the calibre of the player to determine whether you think they are doing it intentionally or just don't have the experience or timing to do a complete swing. Yes, I have seen it many times, and normally I do not call a bunt mainly because the batter is still swinging through after contact with the ball albeit slowly.
As whether the umpires will call it in our league, I will leave it up to their judgement but I don't think that anybody is doing it on purpose just to get on base.
Thanks for bringing the topic up though.
Marshall
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Joe,
To answer your second question as to the call.
Any bunted ball is an automatic out in slo-pitch regardless of whether it goes fair or foul and regardless of how many strikes you have.
Marshall |
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