There is an emphasis again this year on NFHS Rule 7-3-4 prohibitting batters purposely letting themselves be hit by a pitch to "take one for the team". The clarification is that the pitch is called a ball or a strike and the batter remains at bat unless it is strike 3 or ball 4. What is the ruling in this situation: 3-1 count on the batter with two outs, R1 on second. R1 breaks for third on pitch, batter makes no attempt to get out of the way of an inside pitch that glances off his arm into the catcher's mitt, and catcher throws R1 out at 3rd. Does the ball become dead when it hits the batter under these cirmcumstances, i.e., he allowed himself to be hit? Is he awarded 1st and R1 returned to 2nd, or is it a delayed dead ball until the play ends at 3rd, ending the inning?
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