The losing side thought the call was so bad, they went to the
press.
The winning side just got it all on tape.
Gilroy – The losing side thought the call was so bad, they went to the press.
The winning side just got it all on tape.
After the Pendleton, Ore. Little League team fell to Gilroy in the final of the Western Regional in Vancouver, Wash. last Sunday, Pendleton manager Scott McGrath told the Vancouver Columbian newspaper that an umpire’s call at home plate in the bottom of the sixth was “probably the worst call I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Down 6-5 with two in the final inning, Gilroy tied the score when Alissa Castro slid into home and the Pendleton catcher was called for obstruction. McGrath argued the call and was ejected from the game.
Gilroy went on to win 10-9 in the 10th inning to earn a trip to the Little League World Series in Portland, Ore.
But the story doesn’t end there.
Gilroy Little League information officer and a parent of a player on the World Series-bound team presented the Dispatch with screen captures of video he shot of the disputed play at the plate.
Sosa said the video “prove(s) that the umpire made the right call on the obstruction play in the bottom of the sixth when we tied the game.”
Added Sosa: “You can see Alissa just starting to collide with the catcher and the ball is in the air. The first picture shows Alissa about two feet in front of the catcher, and the next one is a step later.”
Sosa said he planned to send the screen captures to the Columbian and to Pendleton Little League “so that they don’t feel like they got robbed by the umps.”
