[scarolinablue]

Since I'm up filling out the online ejection form, figured I'd share the first I had tonight - first bench-clearer ever for me in my nine years.

Rivalry, conference game, always some tension in the air with these two teams, but no real issues heading into the 5th inning. Really, just a perfect storm happened - you've all seen the Pete Rose / Ray Fosse highlight - something kind of like that, though the runner wasn't horizontal like Pete, but did lead with the shoulder, so I've got malicious contact there. Then, the catcher rolls over the runner (they were still tangled up on the ground) and shoves him back down - BING! EJ #2, and here come the benches. I backed up and got out my card to begin writing down numbers.

To their credit, the coaching staffs for both teams did a good job keeping things from escalating into a full-blown melee. Neither me from behind the dirt circle nor my partner who had moved between the mound and home saw any other punches thrown or wrestling matches ensue, so we only had the two protagonists to dump. The catcher's coach wanted to suggest his guy was totally innocent - hogwash.

Next half inning, a close play at first got a little chippy, so I hauled the coaches back out to home, they got the message, and we finished up the rest of the game without issue. No handshakes after the game tonight between the teams.

All in all, I think we handled it about as well as we could have - on the drive home I kept trying to think about how I might have been able to pre-empt it, but it really was just one of those things - the perfect storm. Just glad it didn't get worse than it did, and that it settled down after that. Both teams' coaches and AD's actually sought us out and thanked us after the game for handling it as best we could. Don't want to see that again, though.