During a game last night, we had an incident that I have not seen before in 11 years of playing baseball, but I thought the call was very interesting (and wrong). The pitcher threw the pitch just like any other at bat, but the ball went high over the players head. However, the player did not move his bat, and barely ducked or turned, so the ball hit the bat, which landed and stayed in fair territory the entire time. The batter and the fielder were both slow to react to what had just happened, but the fielder threw the runner out at first, 5-3 putout, inning over. However, the umpire stated that the ball should be played as a foul ball, and the innning were to continue, which called both teams back onto the field, and he never stated any reason for his decision, it almost seemed as if the call was made out of sympathy for the batter, as the outcome of the at bat was very unusual and certainly not what any batter strives for. The batter eventually struck out to end the inning a second time. What happened, and what is the correct call?
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