Few college baseball games will feature a first three innings as wacky as we saw in the Big 12 Baseball Tournament elimination game between TCU and Kansas.
The Jayhawks wasted no time getting to work and knocked in nine runs in the bottom of the first inning alone. By the middle of the third inning, TCU had added six runs back, but both clubs had also just suffered through one of the longest and strangest play reviews you’ll ever see.
In a stoppage clocking in at well over 15 full minutes, umpires argued over a bunt by TCU batter Sam Myers. Myers bunted down the first base line but was called out since one umpire believed the ball hit Myers once it was in play, thus making him out. Myers continued to the first base bag anyway as Kansas players sauntered towards the ball.
But after the call was made, umpires reviewed the play and noticed that Myers was not hit by the ball and was an eligible base runner. So over their 15 minutes of deliniations, they came to the decision that Myers was safe. However, Kansas coach Dan Fitzgerald believed once the runner was called out, he couldn’t then be awarded a bag on the play since the play was dead the moment Myers was ruled out.
Ultimately, Fitzgerald protested the call and Myers was still called safe when the dust settled — an important ruling, since TCU blasted a three-run home run which scored him a couple batters later.
It’s easy to see why Fitzgerald wasn’t the happiest camper when explaining the bizarre call and the outrageously long stoppage that came with it.
“You know, the ump thought it hit him and called him out immediately and I thought at that point, when they call him out, our guys just jogged towards the ball, being that he was called out,” explained Fitzgerald.
“Then they got together and they didn’t think it hit him. So my argument was: I don’t know how we can award a guy a base when we’re not given the opportunity to make a play — I mean, once you call a guy out.”
That was grounds for a protest, per Fitzgerald.
“So the only way to get it right at that point is to protest it, and that’s why they draw the P in the air and then run back and — I don’t know who they talk to, what they look at. But yeah, I’ve never seen that before on a baseball field where a guy is called out and then awarded the base in that way. So, anyway, just a flukey play, and obviously, I wish it had been different.”
Well, you can watch 1,000 baseball games this season and likely not see that same situation unfold a single other team. Truly a fluke scenario.
But after those comments, Fitzgerald also spoke with the broadcast about maintaining focus on the play at hand amid a day that includes a potential double-header and already featured some officiating shenanigans.
“You got to play it pitch by pitch. That was the message this morning: We’ve got an awesome long day of baseball and if we just play it pitch by pitch, we’ll be fine. If you can just go pitch by pitch and really simplify it — and not really look at the clock, not really look at the scoreboard aside from the situation — you give yourself a chance to play consistent baseball.”
According to Fitzgerald, this Jayhawk club is more than used to playing twice in one day.
“Fortunately, it feels like we played a billion double-headers this year, and of course, these guys, we’ve all played double headers our whole lives.”
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