Plain and simple, the University of Alabama baseball team got hosed during the Tallahassee Regional championship game against Kennesaw State on Monday afternoon.
With an NCAA Super Regional berth on the line, Bama’s Kyle Overstreet came to the plate in the top of the ninth inning with runners on first and second and the Crimson Tide losing 4-2. The second baseman hit .279 with a .336 on-base percentage this season, so Alabama was primed for a comeback when Overstreet took a ball way down and in from Kennesaw State closer Justin McCalvin — that he even jumped away from to avoid being hit– on a 2-2 count.
The only problem was home plate umpire Jim Garman called it a strike to end the game.
It was a brutal call and made for an especially heartbreaking way for Alabama to end its season.
“I’m highly disappointed in the last inning, the way the game ended,” Alabama baseball coach Mitch Gaspard told reporters after the game, via AL.com. “I felt we had an opportunity right there with guys on first and second and Overstreet’s working a really good at-bat. Then it’s a ball. It’s a flat-out ball. The (strike call) was not called on a ball off the plate the entire day. I’m very disappointed in that last call, that we didn’t get another pitch to fight with.”
Kennesaw State certainly isn’t complaining, though, as it advanced to its first Super Regional, where it will play Louisville.
