I've watched and broadcasted quite a few area high school softball games, but a little over a week ago, a softball game between two Texas high schools produced an ending that was one of a kind.     

McKinney North was hosting Wylie.  Both teams were assured a trip to the Texas UIL playoffs, but this was a battle for the district championship. As the teams went into the bottom half of the final inning, Wylie had a 6-2 lead, however, McKinney North plated two runs and had the bases loaded with two outs.  The next play was a grounder to the Wylie shortstop, she fielded the ball and threw to second for the force out to end of the game, but here's where everything goes crazy.

You'll probably need to watch the WFAA video several times over to notice some of the events taking place:

  • Even though the runner at 2nd appears to be out, the field umpire does not hesitate in signaling here safe.
  • The runner sliding into 2nd (the eventual winning run) seems to believe that she is out and reacts by slumping at the bag for a few seconds before her 3rd base coach alerts her to the situation.
  • After a few seconds of celebration, the pitcher realizes the situation and gets the ball (which is still live) and fires the ball home, however, no one is there to catch it, so the ball goes to the fence
  • One of the few Wylie players that recognizes that the umpire's call was safe is their left fielder.  She hustles to cover the bag at third for a throw that never comes, she then goes to get the ball behind home plate in an attempt to tag out the winning run.  Now, here comes a phrase that I've never heard in softball or baseball before...the left fielder is just late in her attempt to tag the runner out at home.

For those that think that Wylie got cheated by a bad call at second, some karma did come their way.

McKinney North lost in the first round of the UIL softball playoffs while Wylie won their first round series as they now continue to the area round of the Class 5A playoffs.

 

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