offensive interference on dropped strike 3

Question
In my daughter's game last night, the catcher missed strike three.  It bounced off the catcher and went about 5 feet to the right.  As the catcher was reaching to pick up the ball, the batter dropped the bat, which then struck the ball, knocking it to the backstop. Because of this, the catcher was not able to retrieve the ball in time to make the put out at first.  The runner was ruled safe.  Shouldn't the runner have been out for offensive interference?

Answer
Hi Wendy,
Thank you for your question.  You should have been the umpire last night!  When the discarded bat hit the dropped third strike, the ball should have been declared dead immediately and the batter-runner called out for batter-runner interference.  If there were runners, they should have been returned to the last base touched at the time of the interference.
Scott Kelly