Big controversy in Louisville. Plate umpire has a breakdown.
CRAWFORD | Louisville beats IU to stay alive but loses closer amid late-game controversy | Sports | wdrb.com
FTA:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The first Sunday game of a regional is usually forgotten as long as the final out is recorded. But that's when Sunday's game between Louisville and Indiana at Jim Patterson Stadium got interesting.
With a 2-2 count and a runner on with a 9-7 lead, Louisville closer Michael McAvene threw a pitch that was close to the strike zone. He didn't get the call, however, and the count ran full to Indiana's Ryan Fineman. Before he got the ball back from the catcher, McAvene could be seen on replays saying, "That's horrible."
Whether McAvene was talking to his catcher about the call or about his own pitch, nobody every clarified. But home plate umpire Ken Langford didn't like it and tossed McAvene from the game – an action that carries a mandatory four-game suspension for McAvene, with no apparent avenue for appeal.
Louisville coach Dan McDonnell came sprinting from the dugout shouting and immediately got a warning from Langford. His arguments were in vain. Louisville brought in Michael Kiaran to throw the full-count pitch. His pitch appeared to bounce near the plate, but Langford called Fineman out on strikes looking, and the game was over. . .
"You can look at the video," Mercer said. "I'm a subdued guy, pretty level headed. And both of our base coaches are very level-headed guys. I mean, the pitch just bounced. You can look at the video. That's not untrue or controversial. It just bounced. So when you have a game like this with so much on the line, so much at stake, and you make a call like that to end guys' careers, and some of these guys end their career period, and some will go onto the next level, it's going to be heated, and guys are going to be upset. They (umpires) have a job to do; they get paid to do it. I get paid to do my job. And you have to be able to execute, and everyone is held to that same standard. . .
Only an LSU fan can utter it with the proper venom and only an LSU fan can appreciate and understand it! Used quite often after the LSU-Alabama football game.
