Being an umpire, or official in any sport, can be a tough job.
Fans and players will never be happy with the calls that are made, and the umpire will hear about it.
Thursday night's North Saskatchewan River Baseball League game between the Unity Cardinals and North Battleford Beavers was no exception. The crowd was a bit bigger than usual, and much more vocal.
Typically the fan talks and the umpire does his or her best to ignore it, but that was not the case Thursday. Unity fans started really giving the gears to the umpire in the fourth inning when one of their players was hit in the head by a slow curve ball, but wasn't given a free pass to first base. The umpire cited indifference, because the Cardinals player didn't make an effort to avoid being hit he wasn't awarded the hit by pitch call.
Indifference is a rule rarely called when a player is hit in the head, but it is a rule of baseball. At this point, the umpire was frustrated with the backseat umpiring going on and did confront the crowd, but nothing too serious.
In the fifth inning, a Unity batter popped out to the North Battleford third baseman who then caught the Cardinals runner too far off second base and threw him out for a double play. Once again, Unity fans were displeased, asking the Beavers players how many games they win this way.
It was starting to look like the game would go by without any more controversy until the bottom of the seventh came around. One of Unity's players was caught looking at strike three, a call the Cardinals fans once again disagreed with. After hearing the fan's two cents for the last time the umpire shot back, "Kiss my [expletive]."
It's unusual to hear an umpire talk back to the fans, especially in a league far from the pros. Not to suggest a lack of quality baseball from the NSRBL.
The constant bickering back and forth overshadowed one of the Beavers' top pitching performances all season.
Dalton Lafreniere was nothing short of dominant in the game. He used a good, hard, well-located fastball well and mixed it with a slow, looping curve ball. Lafreniere was crossing batters up all game.
He started strong getting the first two Unity batters of the night to flyout. He lost the strike zone a bit and gave up back-to-back walks before getting a strikeout to end the inning.
North Battleford went down quietly in the bottom of the first inning. Aaron Cadrin had a leadoff walk before being thrown out trying to steal second. Kyle Gregoire and Matthew Benson followed him up with a flyout and strikeout respectively.
Unity made Lafreniere look mildly human in the second inning. The leadoff batter reached first on an infield single and was moved to second on a groundout, eventually scoring on another single. Lafreniere didn't let that faze him and got out of the inning giving up just one run.
For North Battleford, Jared Inkster led off the bottom of the second with a groundout, but Rory Gregoire was able to reach first on an infield single. After a Derrick Chapman groundout, Tyler Russell stepped up to the plate and cranked an RBI double, tying the game.
Ryan Myers and Brennan Lampitt hit back-to-back singles, scoring Russell and giving the Beavers all the runs they would need.
Lafreniere was given a one-run lead and made use of it. He dominated for the rest of the game, making his curve ball dance and using his fastball to throw off the batters' timing.
The Beavers have won two straight games now, putting their record at 6-5. The club is tied for fourth in the league with the St. Walburg Reds and Midwest Expos. North Battleford has three games left in the regular season. Their only home game remaining is July 12 against the Lloydminster Midgets.
Three Lloydminster teams top the league. The Twins are 8-1, the Blue Jays are 8-3 and the Juniors are 9-4. After the log jam at fourth place sit the Unity Cardinals and Wilkie Brewers who both have a 6-5-1 record. The Meadow Lake Sox are 5-5, followed by the 3-9 Standard Hill Lakers. Rounding out the standings are the 2-9 Mervin Flyers and 1-10 Lloydminster Midgets.
Statistics from the game:
Ian Lafreniere: Pitching - 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 hits, 4 K, 4 BB
Aaron Cadrin: Batting - 0-2, 1 BB, 1 CS
Kyle Gregoire: Batting - 1-3, 1 K
Matthew Benson: Batting - 0-2, 1 BB, 1 SB, 1 K
Jared Inkster: Batting - 0-3
Rory Gregoire: Batting - 1-3
Derrick Chapman: Batting - 0-3
Tyler Russell: Batting - 1-1, 1 RBI, 1 BB
Ryan Myers: Batting - 1-3
Brennan Lampitt: Batting - 1-2, 1 RBI
Brad Eischen: Batting - 0-1
