I lied. This is another Sunday night update from Fullerton. It's 12:05 a.m., just for the record. OK, I lied again. It's actually Monday now.
When an umpire blows a call as badly as the one that just happened, you have to write about it. The umpire then threw Mike Batesole, the Fresno State coach, out of the game for arguing the call. That's just poor.
Fresno State was down, 6-3, in the sixth inning. Fullerton had some runners on and a guy hits a long fly ball to left center. The centerfielder, Nick Moresi, runs over and makes this unbelievable catch in the gap, diving away from the infield. And when he got up and made the exchange to his hand, the ball came out of his mitt.
It was pretty obvious 400 feet away, yet somehow the umpire at second base who had run halfway out, called it a hit. So two runs scored and the batter was standing on third with a triple. The Fresno State outfielders were going nuts, since he actually caught the ball, and so the umpires all got together to get the call right.
They did not get the call right, or maybe they just couldn't change the call, since calling the batter out would have meant the two runners who scored left their bases too soon. Batesole came out to argue, and even though it's impossible to know what he said, the umpire threw him out pretty quickly.
It's not a rule or anything, but if you're an umpire -- and I was an umpire for several years -- and you make a bad call, you have to just stand there and take a lot of grief from the coach without throwing him out of the game. That's a nice way of saying, "Yeah, I screwed up. There's nothing I can do about it now."
You don't let the coach put you in a choke hold or anything like that, but you don't get to throw him out of the game right away. This umpire did. Batesole was absolutely right.
And it cost the Bulldogs at least two runs. It wasn't the difference in the game, but it sure stomped out any chance of a comeback.
Just a note to say thank you for your sports column. I am probably one of a few 71 year old grandmas that reads the sports page but I appreciate your fairness in reporting. We moved to Fresno from Kansas in 1965 and have seen many changes in the past 41 years. One nice change I really like is your positive attitude reporting about Fresno State and local sports. Far too often we have only heard put-downs and negative comments. Please keep up the good work. We can take the bad with the good but when it all comes out bad and the local teams can never do anything right, where is the hometown support? That is the way it is back in the Plains - you are encouraged and supported along with hope for the future. Thanks, Nancy Bosler