[chapmaja]

Rec League 6th grade game.

I'm working with a new umpire who is doing her first 2 umpire game behind the plate. R1 at 2nd, R2 at first, B3 at the plate.

Low line drive to SS who makes a shoestring catch. From my angle on the play (as the BU) I thought it hit the ground. She immediately tags the R2 after the catch, then runs over and tags R1 who is now standing on 2b. I did not see or hear the out call on the catch, so I call R2 out (tag), and R1 safe at second. B3 is standing on 1b, so I think we have 1 out. The PU comes up and tells me she called an out on the catch (the dirt I saw coming up was from the glove, not the ball hitting the dirt). At this point, now instead of 1 out, we have 3 outs. One on the catch. 1 on R2 tagged while running from 2b to 3b, and one for R2 being off 2b without having tagged up.

We actually had a parent video taping the game. After the game he showed us the video of the play, and sure enough, it was a catch and a resulting triple play. It was a great play by the SS and a great call by my PU.

To be honest, the only issue I had with this rookie plate umpire was her voice. Her calls were too quiet to be heard on the bases. Other than her voice level, everything else she did was very solid. I was very impressed to have a young umpire who was honestly better than several JV umpires I worked with in the HS season. Too bad she is still in HS, because the JV HS level needs some new quality umpires to replace the ones who starting umping when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.