It’s rare to see an umpire’s call overturned over a minute after it was made, but it happened twice at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium on Saturday, and both reversals worked in the favor of the Santa Barbara Foresters, who beat the rival San Luis Obispo Blues in comeback fashion, 8-4.
The win keeps the Foresters alone in first place in the California Collegiate League, as they are 6-2 in the conference and 10-2 overall.
Wichita State lefty Albert Minnis struck out six and pitched five innings of one-hit ball, but Santa Barbara fell behind early thanks to three errors and a couple of wild pitches. James Wharton had two hits and Joe Wallace scored three times.Tyler Pearson had two singles and scored twice while Blake Brown singled, doubled and also scored twice.
“That was fun baseball. We hadn’t been hitting for a little bit and were in a little bit of a slump… Minnis has some serious run on his fastball, and he was doing his job,” said Foresters manager Bill Pintard.
The first overturned call came in the bottom of the fourth inning with the Foresters down 3-0. Wallace led off with a bunt single and Pearson followed with a bunt of his own. The throw to first by Blues catcher JoJo Sharrar pulled first baseman Zac Elgie off the bag, but the umpire called Pearson out, claiming he was tagged. After a conference with the home plate umpire, the call was overturned and Pearson was ruled safe. Another error followed, allowing Wallace and Pearson to score, and Jeff McNeil was hit by the next pitch.
McNeil felt he was plunked intentionally and voiced his opinion at the Blues pitcher as he went to first. He then dove back on a pickoff throw at first and felt he was tagged intentionally hard, getting up to have words with Elgie.
“I love the guy. I mean, it hurts getting hit, and he thought it was intentional. After talking to him, it probably was,” said Pintard.
A fly ball by Nick Melino scored another run to tie the score at 3-3 before the inning ended.
The second overturned call came in the bottom of the sixth, with the score still tied. Derek Legg hit a one-out single, which was followed by a ground ball from Wallace. Legg was thrown out at second, and Wallace was called out at first despite appearing to beat the throw. The Blues left the field, but had to come back out a few minutes later after the call was once again overturned. The Foresters would go on to score three more runs in the inning.
“I’ve honestly never seen that. Usually umpires sort of stick together with their crew and back up the calls, but thankfully that home plate umpire saw things as they were, because those were two pretty easy calls to make,” said Wallace, who laid out to snag an impossible fly ball in right field in the fourth, receiving a standing ovation from many of the fans.
Blues (8-4, 5-4 CCL) assistant coach Anthony Pannone, filling in for head coach Chal Fanning, who was at a friend’s wedding, said he didn’t blame the umpires.
“You can never blame the umpires for anything, right? It just so happens that the calls didn’t go our way, and you can’t let it change the way you play. You have to play hard,” he said.
Pintard said if the second call wasn’t overturned, he would have argued to the point of getting tossed out of the game.
“That home plate umpire (who overturned the calls) is a polished umpire… Both of those plays were obvious, and the first base umpire just got confused,” he said. “The bottom line is they got it right.”
The rubber match of the series is Sunday at 1 p.m. at UCSB. All games are broadcast on AM 990 and sbforesters.org.
