First of all, I applaud your bravery, I was panicking with the rat, and I should have known you and read this before my incident. I could only think of kicking it of the bucket so it's not stuck.
I doubt the bat will be remotely offended if you get the gender wrong. You were trying to save his ass and you did pretty well with animal handling skills
In the case of your rat, I would have looked for a shovel or similar tool with a long handle to scoop him out of the water. I'm not much of a fan of mice and rats, but I wouldn't want to just let it drown, either. There are traps designed as bucket lids which pivot suddenly when they go for bait in the middle, drop them into water, and trap them there to drown. It's not as messy as other traps, but it does seem cruel. Then again, we have cats for pest control, and that isn't exactly a guaranteed swift death for the rodents, is it?