The Florida Gators needed a win Monday night in Baton Rouge. However, in large part thanks to a terrible call by an umpire, Florida heads home with a 2-4 record in conference play after two weekends.
The Tigers and Gators split the first two contests of the weekend, setting up the Monday rubber match.
Kendyl Lindaman started things off with a two run blast in the first inning that spotted Kelly Barnhill (15-3) a nice lead before she ever took her place in the circle.
LSU got one back in the third inning after a pair of Barnhill walks and an RBI single by Shelbi Sunseri.
Then LSU tied the game up on an egregious missed call. The Tigers had runners on first and third and two outs when Amber Serrett hit a ground ball to second base. Gators 2B Hannah Adams mishandled the hop, but rifled the ball over to first in time for the final out.
Except that’s not how the first base umpire, Ron Alexander, saw it. Alexander signaled safe which allowed the tying run to score. This forced Florida head coach Tim Walton to protest the call, but to no avail. Adams gets credited with the first error of her career on a play she clearly gunned down the runner.
Softball vs. LSU, 2019.
Florida leads LSU 2-1. Ground ball to Hannah Adams, who throws the runner out to end the inning. Except the first base ump can’t bear to lose the $50,000 he bet on LSU, so he calls the runner safe. LSU then walks it off in the 7th to win the series. pic.twitter.com/Ed7ZJPSmIV
— InAllKindsOfWeather.com 🍑🥣🏆 (@AllKindsWeather) March 19, 2019
LSU carried the momentum of the tied game into the seventh inning. After a strikeout, LSU got a runner on via a bunt single and sure enough, a double to left center scored the game winning run.
Sure, Florida had opportunities to extend the lead throughout the game. The Gators went 2-15 (.133) with runners on base. But the fact is, an umpire decided an important conference game with a simple blown call that was obvious to anyone who was watching.