Every coach, player, fan and spectator wishes for a game to be decided by the players themselves and not the officials, referees or umpires. 

On Tuesday, May 3, Loyola’s 11-10 loss to Resurrection became more about the umpires and less about a thrilling game that featured a combined 21 runs and 28 hits.

“I never want to blame a game on the umpires, it’s not how I am,” Loyola coach Michelle Farrell-Fink said.

Coming into the seventh inning, the Ramblers and Bandits were tied at 10 and Resurrection had its 8-9-1 hitters coming to the plate. Loyola pitcher Kylie Sanders got the first two outs — but then things got interesting.

Sanders walked Joanna Cirrincione and then the next batter, Madison Van Horn, hit a double. As Cirrincione rounded third base, she and Sanders collided and the umpires called interference on Sanders, allowing Cirrincione to score what would end up being the game-winning run.

“Oh it was horrible all game,” Farrell-Fink said of the umpiring. “The umpires even said on the interference play ‘Oh sorry I missed it, I wasn’t paying attention.’”

The Ramblers still had a chance to tie things up or even win the game, however.

With its 7-8-9 hitters coming to the dish, Loyola was looking to get at least one run on the board to, at minimum, send the game into extra innings. Leadoff hitter Lindsay Matousek coaxed a walk out of Resurrection pitcher Christina Gatta. Two batters later, freshman Cassidy Rodgers stepped up looking to collect her third hit of the day and did, lacing a double to the wall and allowing Matousek to get to third base. Emma DiSilvestro was next called out for stepping on the plate while hitting the ball, causing a dead ball. Matousek had scored by the time the umpire had called the dead ball, but because of the situation, she was forced to go back to third base.

“They don’t even know what they called, I couldn’t tell you,” Farrell-Fink said when asked about the call on DiSilvestro. “I just called the head of the umpires right now. It won’t change the outcome, but they have to know.”

The home plate umpire called three different batters out for having both feet out of the batter’s box in Tuesday’s game.

Sanders was the Ramblers’ hitting star as well, knocking out two hits and four RBI. She hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning, a blast that tied the game at two. Nora Conway, DiSilvestro and Avery Yalowitz also had RBI to aid Loyola’s cause. Despite all that, it wasn’t enough.

“No we don’t want high-scoring games, we can’t let a team score 11 runs on us,” Farrell-Fink said. “We kept with them the whole game, we were getting to their pitcher, we scored 10 runs on them but what can you do?”

Loyola hasn’t had much of a chance to play a normal schedule this season, thanks to the crazy spring weather, and Farrell-Fink says that’s been unfortunate for her team.

“We haven’t really been able to play a lot of out-of-conference games. I think if we get the rest of the games in, we’ll only play nine or 10 of those games,” Farrell-Fink said. “We’ve been mainly playing our conference but we like to play a lot of different teams. We’ve just had to change it all because of the weather.”

The Ramblers (3-11 GCAC, 10-12 overall) now prepare for the GCAC Tournament next week before finishing the regular season against rivals New Trier, Oak Park and Niles West before starting the IHSA playoffs. The Ramblers will find out their seed and opponent next week.

– See more at: http://www.wilmettebeacon.com/high-school/softball-game-winning-run-crosses-controversial-call-against-loyola#sthash.S2RGEdgP.dpuf