HBP ?

With no one on - Ball (and batter, don't do that again)

If there was a baserunner, and he was stealing on that pitch, I'd ring up the baserunner for batter interference.

Since this happened in a 12U game..........I would call a ball.......tell the batter to try not to do that again....make sure he was ok and resume the game....

But it's been a long time since I did a 12U game.

In the base stealing scenario....

If I was going to call interference on the batter I'd ring up the batter and return the runner to the base occupied at the time of the pitch.

Unless the runner was trying to steal home. With less than two outs the runner is out. With two outs the batter is out.

HTBT but sounds like a natural albeit not to smart way to protect him/herself. Kinda like the stab victim that has multiple scars on the hands, it's not they'd rather be stabbed in the hands, just this is a natural reaction to protect oneself, Dead ball, take your base.

Maybe a better less gruesome example would be; a person falling down, will attempt to put the hand/s up to protect the body, they didn't prefer two broken wrist over a scraped chin it's just natural.

jjk:
Do Not allow him a base. The sitch said it wouldn't have hit except he reached out and swatted at it. Although it may have been a reflex, you can't reward him for a dump action. The next time he may decide to do it on purpose. It worked last time, might as well try it again. Kill the ball, call the ball and explain the errors of his ways.

quote:

Originally posted by Yankeelvr:
What is the proper call ?

Proper call is to keep the kid on the bench! I can see a 9 or 10u player doing something like that. But at 12u???

oh come on now, it's not like it's a varsity or even a JV game they COULD be 10 or 11. i highly doubt he did it on purpose. call it a ball and explain why. putting him on the bench isnt going to help the situation, who knows, maybe after you put him on the bench he never plays ball again. is that really what you want to do to a KID that was just trying to protect himself. i hope not, beezer