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Before the season the NCAA changed the rule to require the runner to slide directly straight into the base and like Coach said, it hadn't been called once in any of our previous 68 games. If they're going to all of a sudden go letter of the law on us then maybe they should have also called back the three Rice batters who got hit by pitches but didn't make any effort to get out of the way....like when a looping curveball hits you on the top of the foot and you don't even pick your foot up to move it.
Sunday June 10th, 2007
10:28pmOwls End Ags Season with a 5-"2" Victory
There are so many things about this game that I want to talk about that I'm afraid that I'm going to forget some of it.
I'll start with my promised photo from The Official Worst Seat Ever:
The arrows are to give some reference. We could see alright when we leaned forward and looked between the top cross bar and the ESPN sign, but my neck is really stiff. I took that picture from Seat 3 so Seats 1 & 2 were to my left and you can imagine how much worse they were with that pole and that schmuck standing there. I'll get to the Unbelievably Inconsiderate Rice Guy in a little bit.
The game itself was, in loose terms, wild. Rice put a run on the board in the top of the first and Thebeau, who started for us, got himself into and out of a bases loaded jam with a popup.
The bottom of the first is where things got crazy. Deggs revamped the lineup quite a bit. Kyle Colligan led off with a walk and went to third on a Brandon Hicks double. Blake Stouffer walked to load the bases without an out and we're looking like we can do some damage. Their starter, Matt Langwell (anther A&M Consol grad), settles down and K's Craig Stinson for the first out.
This brings Luke Anders to the plate and he hits a ground ball to 1st base who tries for the DP but Luke beats out the return throw to first. Colligan scores easily and Brandon Hicks is heads up and never slows down so he scores from second base without a throw. We take the lead 2-1....but wait....
The 2nd base umpire has called Luke Anders out at first base for the third out of the inning claiming Blake Stouffer interfered on the throw at second base. Interference called on that slide? WTF?
"The runner was told he didn't slide straight into second base. The rule has changed. I can't comment on the rule. It's the first time, I guess we've played 69 games, that it has been called."
--Coach Childress in post game interviews
The reason everyone is so up in arms about it is because a) It is a ridiculous rule; b) It is a brand new rule; c) It is a ridiculous, brand new rule that wasn't called one time all season long. Instead of a 2-1 lead with 2 outs and a runner at first the inning was over and we were losing 1-0. It was a bush league call and it completely changed the rest of the game.
To make matters worse we led off the next inning with Josh Stinson clearly fouling a ball off of his foot but getting thrown out at first base. The guy who fielded the ball didn't even make the throw down to first base right away because he was waiting for the foul call.
Then in the 6th inning Danny Lehman put down a bunt that Darby Brown dove for. Darby couldn’t make the catch but Gary Campfield picked it up and made a stretching tag on Lehman. But the first base umpire, Paul Guillie, called the runner safe. Thankfully he was over-ruled by the home plate umpire.
He wasn't overruled in the 9th inning when Ben Feltner PH and beat out a bunt single but was called out by Guillie while the replay on ESPN proved him wrong once again. If he is safe at first it completely changes the inning. We'll bunt him to second base with Ruggiano and we have Parker Dalton & white-hot Kyle Colligan to drive him in with a single to tie the game....oh wait, we had two runs stolen off the scoreboard in the first inning....never mind then.
Some of you might remember Guillie from the '05 Fullerton Super Regional when he called a balk on Arizona State on during an intentional walk sending the game winning run in to score. He still sucks and the fact that the NCAA continues to be allow him to officiate Super Regional games is a joke.
The strike zone was another thing that changed more often than Paris Hilton's jail time. It was bad for both teams but bad for both teams is still not a good thing. That is all I'm going to say about the officiating. They might not have directly cost us the game but they certainly changed the way we had to play it and the decisions the coaching staff had to make.
I was a little surprised that we started Kyle Thebeau. I was expecting to see Kirkland Rivers who has been much more consistent over the last month. That way we could have used Thebeau on Sunday if necessary and if he got into ANY sort of trouble we could have gone to Scott Migl immediately. Rice countered with Matt Langwell who, after escaping the first inning with that gift, was really tough. They relieved him with Cole St.Clair who finished the game allowing a solo bomb to Stouffer.
At the plate, Rice was carried by Joe Savery who was 3-for-5 with two RBI singles and a solo HR.
Ok, I'll get to Unbelievably Inconsiderate Rice Guy now. Parents, I try to keep this site cleanly written but I'm going to warn you that my language might slip a bit here because I'm still mad about this guy. You might want your 5-year olds to skip the next couple of paragraphs. Obviously our seats were bad but there was a guy decided to make them worse. He was either a former player or was related to a Rice player because all the players came up to him at some point during the day. We asked him to move during the first inning and he didn't. He thought that he was covered by the pole. We scooted down on our bench and a nice Ag let Sarah sit on the row behind us in one of their extra seats.
Everytime Rice did anything he just stood there and raised his fist up in the air just like Tommy Smith or John Carlos. As the game went on the people behind us started chirping at him to move. Then in the 5th or 6th inning some guy came up and started to talk to him. This new guy was completely blocking 3 rows of seats from being able to see so I stood up and politely tapped him on the shoulder, "Excuse me sir, could you scoot over? You're blocking a lot of people's view." He just looked at me and turned back around and picked up his conversation again. Complete asshole. I was livid.
It was shortly after that when our section started getting a little rowdy with "Fist Pump". Pat went to speak to the Rice stadium people. They sent some 80 year old guy over who asked him to move but the guy said no. We all started yelling at him and he started yelling back. He told us that he had a media pass and he could stand anywhere he wanted and that we shouldn't have bought such bad seats. Pat and another guy went back to the stadium people and they finally brought a security guard over and had him move. As he was walking away he did the fist pump again and yelled, "Scoreboard". Yeah, he actually yelled "Scoreboard."
This is the second time I've been to Rice in post-season play and the second time I've had huge problems with one of their fans. I can't help but come away with the feeling that Rice fans are obnoxiously arrogant and feel like they are much more important than they actually are. It would be different if it was students that were such jerks but there are so few students at Rice games that it isn't ever them.
It was just a crappy way to end such an amazing season. I've got no problem losing fair-and-square to Rice but it wasn't fair-and-square, but it wasn't Rice's fault. They took the breaks they got and capitalized on them.
Rice didn't just blow by us like ESPN & Baseball America are making it out. Game 1 was an extra innings 1 run victory and had we not been jobbed it would have been, at worst, a 1-run loss in game two. I thought that we were very evenly matched against Rice. We played 4 times on the season, all in Houston, going extra innings twice (splitting those two games), winning a third game, and losing a much, much closer than it appeared game.
I wish the Owls the best of luck in Omaha, particularly Jess Buenger. I was sad to see him leave A&M but I'm glad that he's getting his chance to make that trip.
It was a heckuva season and a very memorable one. Thank you Parker Dalton, Jason Meyer, Kyle Nicholson, Craig Stinson, Josh Stinson, & Matt Ueckert. Thanks to David Newmann, Blake Stouffer, Brandon Hicks, Gary Campfield, Ben Feltner, & Chambless....I hope you all come back and make another run next year but I can't be disgruntled if you don't. Last but certainly not least, thank you to the coaching staff. You guys have made a huge difference in a very short amount of time. You are making Aggie baseball hard-nosed, fun, & exciting. Aggie baseball is important again. I can't wait until opening day.