Bunter out while in the box

[testandor]

It doesn’t matter what rule set. If the batted ball comes back and hits the batter while she’s still in the batter’s box - ANY PART of the batter’s box - it’s a dead ball and a strike on the batter if she has less than 2 strikes on her. The reason there’s a fair and foul part of the batter’s box is for the batted ball that does NOT hit the batter, so that the umpire can determine fair or foul when the ball is either touched or comes to rest.

I hope that game where this happened was a 10U rec league game. Maybe 12U rec. Anything else it would have been nice if somebody - anybody - would have corrected that HP umpire. Not to yell at the ump, but so that he or she will learn and not repeat the mistake.

 

[The Man In Blue]

In the USA rulebook,

She is protected from being called out for hitting the ball a second time with the bat, with the bat in her hands in the batters box.

She is out if she makes contact with a fair batted ball.

There's nothing in the book (that I can find) that says she's protected by being in the batters box, but this would be a very difficult thing to parse, and if there were any doubt, I would call foul.

Rule 7 -- Batting
Section 4 -- A Strike On the Batter
I. When any part of the batter's person or clothing is hit with a batted ball while the batter is in the batter's box and (FP) has fewer than two strikes.

EFFECT -- Section 4F-L: The ball is dead and each runner must return to their base without liability to be put out.

 

[EdLovrich]

And since this was a bunt attempt, even if the batter had a 2-strike count it would be dead ball, foul, strike