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Thanks. He was the one I was thinking of. He pitched very well tonight in their victory. I believe he had 10 strikeouts.Matthew kleinfelter of Lancaster is playing at JMU
I’m with you it was an ugly officiated game and it should be better at this time of year, in 2011 ball it down line clearly fair two runs scored ump called foul ball ended up losing 3-1 and it was 1-1 at the time (state championship game) the two plays at third no third base umpire they would have both called out. The last pitch of game if he said was low not from were I was, inside possibly not low
Balls and strikes are a subjective call so while I agree with the above statements, there is no "clear" argument with those calls. As flawed as the human factor is to these games, it is also a vital factor. Imagine a game where you never get the "edge" called for a strike? In my opinion you can only hope that you get a consistent official that has the same strike zone size and location throughout a game. With that said, I absolutely agree the officiating has/is affecting games and it does get frustrating. It doesn't do any good now but short of computerized strike zone and video replays at the HS level, we are at the mercy of officials that are flawed. Bless them for putting up with some of the abuse they endure but a more stringent set of guidelines for making sure you get the best possible officials would be a welcome change when it comes to the postseason in high school sports.
First of all my apologies for my one out/two out mistake. I stand corrected. As you regular readers know, I do all of this from memory and usually several hours after the fact. Not only that but I turned 39 (????) recently so factor in a little bit of old age and you get the picture.
So while we are on the subject of human beings that make mistakes (see how I cleverly worked in that connection?) our umpires and for that matter our officials at every level of every sport are only human and even the finest in modern technology cannot seem to make for perfect officiating.
For example, in a JMU women's softball game a few weeks ago, one of their runners was CLEARLY safe at first and the announcers did not mince words saying so. They played the replay over and over again and they stuck to their guns that she simply HAD to be safe. Yet the officials stood by their call that she was out and JMU got hosed.
Think back to UVa's basketball run this season and all the crazy calls that impacted that. And yes you could even argue that if they won the national title, then "all" of those controversial calls had to go their way or else someone else would have been printing national champion T shirts instead of Mincer's.
So the bottom line in sports in general is that you can't win them all all the time and these things have a way of balancing themselves out. For example, someone pointed out a call that went against Riverheads in the 2011 state championship game against Page.
I just refuse to believe that any official goes into a game with the mindset that they are going to call a bad game or favor one team over the other. They just do the best they can with the split second, naked eye decisions they are forced to make.
As for the specific calls that Sportzone highlighted in his most recent post, I can only halfway comment on the one about the strikeout followed by the throw down to first. As I recall, and remember I am the one with the less-than-perfect memory, the bases were loaded at the time. So doesn't the rulebook say that in that situation, the batter is automatically out because there was no place for him to go? I think we had already seen that rule applied once before in yesterday's game.
As for the two calls at third where the umpire slightly delayed his call and then pointed dramatically down at the bag before making his call, don't ask me..........I was CLEAR across the diamond from that one.
But it is water under the bridge now so next I would be interested in someone from SW VA coming on here and telling us the details of how Auburn sneaked past Chilhowie and what we can expect from the Eagles.
@sportzone66, maybe I am reading more into this than you intend so I am going to ask it very plainly. Do you feel that CB was clearly the better team and had the game stolen from them? I for one did not see that nor would I say either team was far and away superior to the other. It was a typical HS baseball game with regular season average officials that made mistakes going both ways.
Just for arguments sake an alternative would be to change the format and have a best of 3 series at a neutral site closer to the "home" team once it gets to the state level. That could have the game officials rotate and take a plate bias out of play. Of course teams would have to have more than just one or two pitchers to survive that format but I am all for it. I am guessing the travel and such would really put a damper on that. Just a thought......
Yep. I was only referring to the one CB was on defense. The other was definitely a base running mistake.On a ball in the dirt 3rd strike umpire not suppose to say anything unless he fills it was caught that’s why I teach runners to run to first base inthat situation the problem came down to the runner turning and going back towards dugout automatic out if not for that he would have been safe at first as for longtimer you are right if less than two outs two outs you got get him out at first in that situation bases loaded he only had to step on a plate