This takes a bit to set up, so bear with me.
In a game last week, we were down 9-0 in the top of the 4th (we were the home team), and wanted to make a pitching change for the 5th inning. When the top of the 4th ended, we made some changes. We decided to put our 3B in to pitch. Our best option to take over at 3B was our DH, so what we did was put the DH at 3B (effectively killing the DH), move the starting 3B to P, move the starting P to LF, and take the starting LF out of the game. It's now time to point out that the DH was hitting for our CF.
Now, under pro baseball rules, our CF (who was being DH'd for) would now hit in the spot that our LF occupied, since the DH entered the game on defense and the LF was the one who came out of the game. I was (mistakenly) under the impression that this was the HS rule as well. As I now know, that is not the rule. If the DH enters the game on defense, the player being DH'd for has to come out of the game. (I have been unable to find the reasoning behind this, but my guess is that it is to keep a team from manipulating a lineup in its favor and 'saving' a player for a situation. Although that doesn't make much sense, because if a kid's good enough to save for a big spot, he's probably someone you want in your lineup to begin with. Anywho.) Apparently the umpires that evening didn't know the rule either, because they allowed us to make the changes.
In the bottom of the 4th (with all of the changes now in effect), our DH/3B led off with a walk. Then our 8-hole singled. That brought up the 9-hole, which had been previously been our LF. We sent up our CF (who, remember, had been DH'd for to start the game), thinking this was the legal move. He reached on a error, loading the bases. Our leadoff then came up and fell behind 0-2. This is when their assistant coach approached the umpires about our mistake. The crux of my question (I apologize for burying the lede) is about what did happen, and what should have happened..
Here's what eventually happened: They (the umpires, with the help of the other team's assistant coach) correctly determined that the wrong player hit in the 9-hole. But then they made a couple of decisions that were really poor. So poor, in fact, that had we have been in a 1-run game, the result would have been you all seeing me leading every newscast in the country for losing my s*** at a HS baseball game. They ruled that our 7-hole hitter, the original DH who was now on 3rd base, was out. They also ruled that our original 9-hole, who was sitting on the bench, would have to pick up the current at-bat because he was supposed to be in the game and his turn had gotten skipped. So he goes up to the plate, very confused I might add, with an 0-2 count on him. He struck out, and the game proceeded from there. We eventually lost 11-1.
After looking up the rules this past weekend, I now know the DH rule a little bit better. What I can't find, though, is what should have happened after it was discovered that we were in the wrong. I can only think of 2 possible solutions (and one of them is really far-fetched):
1. The situation is treated like any other batter-out-of-order scenario. Because a pitch was thrown after the wrong hitter got on base, there is no penalty and the game moves on. In this case, however, the original 9-hole/LF would replace the CF on 1B and reclaim his original spot in the batting order (because the DH and the player he was hitting for cannot be in the lineup at the same time).
2. The umpires could decide to basically have a 'do-over' with the correct hitter. Basically, we could have pretended that the 9-hole AB with the wrong hitter never happened, and bring up the right guy to hit with runners on 1st and 2nd and no outs. I know this one's a bit silly, but is it any sillier that having the 9-hole come up to finish an AB that the leadoff hitter began?
I can't think of any other plausible solutions (besides the obvious: know the rules and don't do it again). If there any umpires or coaches or anyone out there that has seen this, heard about this, or knows about this, please let me know. Thanks.
