Green ejected in Eagles’ loss

Steve Virgen

Perhaps, it seemed fitting, poetic even, that Estancia High baseball

coach Jon Green was thrown out after arguing a questionable call in

the seventh inning. The scene, after all, was the climax of a game

that included 13 combined errors.

Green’s ousting was understandable, yet it was the umpires’ error

in judging that Estancia junior Cullen Crom did not tag Tesoro runner

Derek Craddock on his way to first base.

Tesoro defeated host Estancia, 13-3, in a 13th-place semifinal of

the Pride of the Coast Tournament Wednesday, as the Titans used a

seven-run sixth inning to take the life out of the Eagles, but not

Green.

With his team trailing, 11-3, Green never wavered in his decision

to get in the base umpire’s face. Apparently, Green had good reason

to argue.

“I was tagged,” Craddock said after the game.

In the top of the seventh, Craddock chipped the ball toward the

mound. Crom scooped it up and appeared to have tagged the runner

because dust went into the air from Crom’s glove when Craddock ran by

him.

“[Crom] tagged him,” said Tesoro assistant coach Aaron Cohx, a

former assistant at Corona del Mar.

The game’s base umpire did not make a call on the play and the

plate umpire ruled that Crom missed the tag. But that prompted Green

to question the call and the two umpires, who would provide neither

their names nor postgame comments, conversed near the mound.

Green stood about five feet away. After the umpires broke

discussion, they went back to their positions, never giving Green the

ruling or an explanation of the play. Green soon realized that they

ruled Craddock safe and the Estancia coach went to argue with the

base umpire, who quickly ejected him.

“Both guys on the field missed the pitcher tagging the runner;

that’s just unacceptable,” said Green, who sat in the back of his

pick-up truck some 20 yards behind the backstop until the game ended.

“The umpire is out there giving me his resume telling me that he’s a

[NCAA Division I] umpire and that he’s this and that. To miss

something like that is just uncalled for. He made the wrong call and

I think I let him know it. He’s got to live with it. I was right to

argue it. It really wasn’t much of an argument because I had the

right opinion.”

Green cannot be at Estancia’s next game, which will most likely be

April 23 when the Eagles host Golden West League foe Ocean View.

However, Estancia might play its last game of the Pride of the Coast

Tournament before that. The Eagles are supposed to play Bolsa Grande

in the 15th-place game, but because of Monday’s rain, the team’s are

left to schedule that game at their convenience.

Tyler Hoffman went 3 for 4 with two runs scored for the Eagles

(3-13). He displayed great speed in the bottom of the third inning,

when he smacked the ball to right-center field for a triple.

The Titans (5-11) scored three runs in the third, but the Eagles

answered with two runs in the bottom of the frame.

Senior Tony Ippolito drove in Hoffman after a two-out single, then

scored when freshman Mike McDaniels’ grounder resulted in a throwing

error.

Estancia tied the game, 3-3, in the fifth, when McDaniels singled

to bring in Hoffman, who reached on a base hit after an impressive

12-pitch at-bat.

*--*

Pride of the Coast Tournament

13th-place semifinal Tesoro 13, Estancia 3

Score by Innings

Tesoro 003 007 3 -- 13 11 5

Estancia 002 010 0 -- 3 8 8

Hill, Trujillo (6) and Jacobs; McDaniels,

Crom (6) and Hart. W -- Hill, 2-4. L --

McDaniels, 0-3. 2B -- Anderten (T),

Hamren (T), Jacobs (T). 3B -- Hoffman

(E). HR -- Anderten (T)

*--*