Rule question--HBP called a strike.....

Twice in our last tournament, the same player pulled her left hand off the bat to deflect a ball headed toward her ribs. Both times it was ruled a strike. Blue said if the hand comes off the bat and the ball hits the hand, it is a strike. Both times her hand was basically sitting on her ribcage, not out away from her body. Just trying to protect herself. Is that the correct ruling?

And yes, we have told her not to do that, either move or take it without risking injury to the hand. This is in 12U and the batter is batting right handed

The only thing I could possibly think of is that the batter must attempt to avoid being hit or move and she used her hand to deflect instead of moving out of the way. But never seen the rule of hand coming off the bat and batter is hit it is a strike. Most teach to turn their back to the ball if you are going to get hit. More protection than opening your front up or using a hand to deflect. Still don't understand umps call though.

You don't have to attempt to move out of the way though you just can't move into the way of the pitch. That is the part that the batter is getting called for. So yes it's a strike in that case. I understand it "WOULD" have hit her anyway but that is not proven once her hand deflects the ball. She needs to turn away and take the pitch and walk to first.

EDIT: The umpire should call dead ball and award a ball to the batter and not first base. You can't intentionally move a body part into the path of a ball regardless of the balls location.

I've never heard of any rule resembling that...and I just passed the test about a year ago. (Asa state umpire patch)
A strike must be a swinging, bunting, or slapping attempt, or a foul ball, or a pitch that crossed the umpires perception of the zone. Just because she removed her hand from the bat is nothing I've ever heard of.....

On a similar note, My 10u team does NOT move out of the way on balls coming into their batters box. They wear it with pride and are rewarded with skittles at 1st for wearing one.... (I stole that from Tenn. ) Last night's umpire made them come back into the box, saying "she MUST make an attempt to not get hit" ..... I argued to no avail.

There are still some rule sets out there that require the batter to attempt to avoid being hit by a pitched ball, regardless of it's location. ASA being the prominent one.
Yes, the rule does state that you may not move to intentionally be hit by the pitch, but the accepted interpretation of that is movement that would cause a hit by pitch that would not have hit the batter if she didn't move, like sticking your knee out on an inside pitch. It should not include movement intended to protect yourself, such as was described in the OP. In other words, if the pitch was probably going to hit the batter anyway, sticking your hand in the way to protect yourself should still get an award of first base, unless the ball was in the strike zone. This is in the judgement of the umpire of course.

To add another point, there is nothing in the rule about the hand being off the bat causing it to be a strike. Anytime the batter is hit by a pitch, it is a dead ball and whether it is a ball or strike is determined by the location of the ball if not swung at by the batter.

You don't say what she did with the other hand. It's possible she still swung the bat so it could be a strike. but there is no rule about the handing coming off the bat and making it a strike. I wonder if ump things hand is part of the bat so it's a foul. In any event starting next practice you need to make sure this player knows how to turn away from a ball.