Patriots deserved better than VHSL decree

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Published: June 5, 2008

Albemarle High School’s baseball team was accustomed to bouncing back from adversity. In fact, the Patriots thrived on such situations.

Heck, they pulled out so many late-inning wins, they should have changed their nicknames to the Albemarle Reaper Cheaters. Who could ever forget the Patriots coming back from the dead at Halifax County, a tough place to win, scoring seven runs in the final inning to pull off a huge upset just a few days ago?

All these kids ever wanted was a chance. And that’s exactly what the Virginia High School League didn’t give them on Tuesday night in a controversial, 5-4 loss at James River in the Group AAA tournament.

Slipping into darkness

We’ll spare you all the details except to note that following a 30-minute lightning delay in the bottom of the fourth inning, play was resumed in spite of Albemarle coach Carroll Bickers’ protests that it had become so dark his players couldn’t see the ball. He was essentially told that if his team didn’t take the field, the game would be forfeited.

Reluctantly, the Patriots took the field, and not long afterward, the game was suspended in the middle of the fifth due to darkness on a field that did not have lights. Game officials and the coaches agreed to come back on Wednesday and finish the game, neither coach realizing that their handshake agreement meant nothing.

Before either coach even made it home, the VHSL decided that the contest was an official game because it had gone the necessary four and a half innings, and that the 5-4 score would stand. Game over.

You could just imagine the shock that Bickers and his senior-loaded team must have felt when he had to break the bad news to the Patriots at the end of their bus ride home, especially after believing they would get another shot at upsetting the defending state champions the following day. They were devastated.

No satisfaction

While the VHSL technically was within its rights to end the game according to its own rulebook, the whole thing leaves a bad taste that won’t vanish with any rulebook mumbo jumbo as a bromide.

We suppose that if Bickers had any inkling that his team would have been dismissed so easily that he’d still be sitting there at home plate waiting for some sort of satisfaction. Instead, the dreams of perhaps Central Virginia’s most compelling high school team this spring in any sport, were dashed over Rule 50-6-#&$@%!!-B.

This was a special set of circumstances, playing a game under adverse weather conditions. With lightning all around and tornado warnings and watches in the vicinity, it seems the game officials should have used better judgment in suspending play even earlier.

If the true intent is the safety of its young athletes, was it a good call to even bring them back in the dark to play?

And for goodness sakes, why would the VHSL allow a state playoff game to be contested on a field without lights in the first place, particularly on a June day with soaring temperatures, which usually is accompanied by the threat of inclement weather. Seems as if somebody dropped the ball on this one, folks.

We hate to pick on the VHSL because they are comprised of good, caring people, who strongly believe in all the right things about high school athletics. And, while they were technically right, in all fairness, Albemarle wasn’t treated fairly.

This was a team whose strength was fighting back in the late innings. That’s how they got there, for goodness sakes. They should have been allowed, at least, to finish what they started.