With 12 games of the 18 behind us, today we only had three games instead of four.
The 11:00 game pitted Massachusetts against Pennsylvania – an elimination game.
HP – Colin
1B – Dena
2B – Me
3B – Rich
This one was
- hot
. The temperature was hovering about 88 degrees, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. There was a bit of a breeze, but not near enough. Fortunately, they had stocked the press wells with buckets containing ice, bottles of water and towels.
This game pretty well played itself. I had only three calls at second – an easy tag out on a steal, a “safe” call on a player retouching after a caught fly ball, and a throw that went out of play into the press well that Dena and I killed and awarded the batter second base. Colin had one major-league collision at the plate – a girl failed to “slide or attempt to avoid” and both she and the catcher went down hard. The catcher held onto the ball, so there was no question about the out, and Colin didn’t feel an ejection was warranted, so after everybody recovered we just played on.
This one ended in exciting fashion – going into the 6th Pennsylvania was ahead by a run, but Massachusetts got a runner on second on that overthrow of first base, pushed her home on a base hit, and then got a second run to go up by one. With one out in the bottom of the sixth, a girl hit a long fly ball to center field which the center fielder went back on and just caught. Had she not, that would have been at least a triple, so that catch may have saved the game. Massachusetts then got the final out of the inning to win 5-4, and eliminate Pennsylvania.
The 2:00 game was between New York and Connecticut.
HP – Paul
1B – Steve
2B – Dena
3B – Bethany
I confess I was glad I wasn’t on the field for this one – the temperature crossed 90, and there still weren’t any clouds or much breeze. Doc had been regularly bringing out cold towels for the catchers and for the plate umpire, something I know Colin appreciated in the first game, and Paul did in the second.
New York won 3-2, eliminating Connecticut. (This actually made things a lot simpler from an umpire scheduling point of view. Given that three of our umpires are from Connecticut and Rhode Island being undefeated, this would have cut into the pool of umpires for the plate and first base, since they try not to put you in either of those positions for your own state.)
The 5:00 game was between Rhode Island and Delaware, the two undefeated teams.
HP – Bill
1B – Me
2B – Bethany
3B – Steve
Before the game, they had a special ceremony at which they presented the Kevin Holden Memorial Sportsmanship award. The award went to the Pennsylvania team – a choice with which I wholeheartedly agreed. The PA team had been gracious to all their opponents – win or lose. I lost count of the number of times in the 11:00 game in which a PA player congratulated a Mass player on a good hit. You have to tip your hat to a team what will say “good hit” to someone who’s just put runs on the board against you.
Delaware jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but Rhode Island was hitting the ball very well as well, and had tied it up 3-3 by the end of the second. I had two real whackers early in the game – one on a girl who had started to run on a line drive caught by the shortstop and had to dive back in, another on a ball hit in the infield that the fielder had to work to catch and then throw. “Safe” in both cases. The defensive manager came out on the first one and asked me if I would get a second opinion from my plate partner. I told him that it was my call all the way, and that I was going to live with it. He accepted that reasonably graciously and returned to the dugout.
Bethany seemed to have a target on her – there were a whole collection of line drives that she had to dodge. There was also one that had my number on it, but the first baseman speared it.
We had a protest in the game. A pitch was high and inside, and the batter appeared (from my vantage point at 1B) to raise her hands to protect her face. The ball hit her right on the knuckles, and Bill awarded her first base on the hit-by-pitch. While not arguing that the ball hit the girls hand, the defensive manager claimed that this should be treated as a foul ball. Those who umpire have frequently heard “the hands are a part of the bat.” While a common belief, this is a myth – the hands are part of the player, not the bat. At the manager’s request, this was taken all the way to Williamsport, but Bill’s call was upheld. That call must not have lasted long – I didn’t realize that they had actually called Williamsport during the delay until Bill told us after the game.
Although Delaware was a game opponent, Rhode Island just seemed to overpower them. The final score was 8-3, giving Delaware their first loss of the tournament.
So the schedule for tomorrow is Massachusetts vs. New York at 4:00pm. The winner of that game then has to turn around and play Delaware at 7:00pm. The winner of that game then plays Rhode Island at 3:00pm on Thursday. If Rhode Island wins that game, they’re the champs. If not, that will leave both teams with one loss, and the “if necessary” game will be played at 6:00pm.
Side note – the local newspaper has obviously been following the tournament. There was a nice picture of Steve accompanying one of the articles, and another photo in which Rich was in the background. Cashing in a few of their 15 minutes of fame, I guess…
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