[Andy]

I worked at the ASA Western B Nationals this weekend.

The format was double elimination with a 3 game guarantee. My next to last game on Sunday was between teams with two losses each. I am PU. Here's the play:

R1 on first, steal attempt. Ball and runner arrive at second base at approx the same time, my partner is exactly where he needs to be to make the call, partner asks defender "show me the ball" to make sure she has control, she holds he ball up, he bangs the out on the runner. 3B coach who is the head coach, comes to me and states the umpire was blocked and would I go help him, I told her that she was welcome to go discuss the call with him. After she talked to him she came to me and said she wanted to ask the UIC for help. I told her that I was not going to bring the UIC for a judgement call, let's play. She started backing up toward the coaches box and said, "you guys are too proud to ask for help in a national tournament". I let this one go, then heard from her, "You guys suck!" At this point I ejected her.

After thinking about the situation, could I have defused it by summoning the UIC? We were on a 1:30 time limit and she had already spent a few minutes with this call. This happened in approx the 3rd inning with about 45-50 minutes left on the time clock. I never like to toss someone, but felt I had no choice after the last comment. Input anyone?