OT - High school baseball game ‘a travesty’ after 65-0 score in 3 innings
Words like “travesty” don’t usually apply to a high school baseball game. They do when the final score of that game is 65-0.
As first noted by the Newark Advocate, a newspaper in Ohio, and followed upon by Sporting News columnist Bill Bender, the Licking County (Oh.) Licking Heights High baseball team routed Columbus (Oh.) Harvest Prep High by a final score of 65-0. The game was halted after three innings, by which point Licking Heights already had accumulated 48 hits, 13 walks and a troubling 11 hit batsmen.
The Hornets scored 16 runs in the first inning, 18 runs in the second and 31 in the third. Harvest Prep scored no runs at all.
I don't really understand. Both teams played, and they called it off as soon as it was prudent to do so. Were they supposed to call it off after the first half inning?
The travesty, I guess, if there is one, is in Harvest Prep's inability to field something even remotely resembling a high school baseball team.
Of all nights Travesty is not appropriate for this situation, check yourself.
I hate stories like this. What was Licking supposed to do, intentionally strike out? Also, eleven hit batters in three innings? That is the more disconcerting fact. Either Harvest Prep has a blind pitcher or they were targeting Licking.
Good for Licking. Harvest Prep... just because you can play baseball doesn't mean you should.
~Herm
You stop swinging the bats. You may get walked, but you can do that much. No different than taking a knee or dribbling out the clock.
Hey, after the 6th hit batter, if I was Licking's coach, I'm telling my players to swing for the fences to put up 100. Eleven hit batters is either entirely incompetent or extremely dirty play.
~Herm
Given the total of 48 base hits in 3 innings, I'm guessing those 11 batters weren't exactly rolling around in pain after getting hit.
Anyway, you can't run out the clock in baseball. The defensive team has to get the outs, and there's nothing ethical the offense can do to help.
April 19th, 2013 at 11:03 PM ^
And I'd put up another 10 runs. Who wins? Look, if this cheating Prep school can't field a proper team, they shouldn't be playing. Trying to injure other players is absolutely abhorrent and they deserve to have the score run up on them.
~Herm
April 20th, 2013 at 12:11 AM ^
The shtick doesn't work if you don't pretend to be an old man.
April 20th, 2013 at 12:35 AM ^
Not a shtick... these are my opinions. Scary I know. I just have too many points to start a new name.
~Herm
April 20th, 2013 at 12:51 AM ^
You are so full of yourself.
maybe you never played baseball before? If the other team is hitting 11 of my players, regardless of how hard they throw.. every pitch could have a chance to injure a teammate of mine.. If that is the case screw em.. If you can't field a baseball team cancel the program
April 19th, 2013 at 10:43 PM ^
I helped coach a high school baseball team last year (because I am a responsible adult who was available; not because I know anything about baseball) and one team was kicking our ass so handily that they started a bunt drill. It took us quite a while to get an out, and it was plenty embarrassing, but I was actually glad they did it. It slowed the bleeding and forced our players to listen to us in order to figure out the adjustments on the fly.
They will be licking their wounds after that beatdown. I'm sorry, this comment is tongue in cheek.
The travesty is the idiots whining about it. You got beat. Bad. Take it and move on.
Wussification of America at it's finest.
Are that many people whining about it? The two articles I read painted the winning coach in a sympathetic light and did not demonize him the way that past coaches who have "run up the score" have been demonized in the past.
The "travesty" word comes from what was said by the umpire.
April 19th, 2013 at 10:07 PM ^
When teams are this mis-matched, there's not much you can do to keep a baseball game from getting out of hand.
Unless you tell your kids to purposefully get out, what are you going to do? You can play as conservatively as possible, but in the end if the other team cannot field the ball it's tough to avoid this. Obviously 65 is crazy ridiculous, but what can you do?
Apparently the team had only freshmen and sophomores. A little digging shows that the school was under investigation for violating OSHAA rules in basketball related to recruiting two years ago. Perhaps some of their upperclass athletes have transfered out leaving them with a varsity squad full of underclassmen.
Athletic direction should have swallowed his/her pride and scheduled games against JV teams.
Im always happy to se a team from Columbus,OH lose.
April 19th, 2013 at 11:31 PM ^
in a double header i got hit 5 total times.... 3 in the first game, 2 in the 2nd. My coach just took me out.
Having coached Little league, the biggest issue i have is for the losing coach's pitch count. These days pitch counts are enforced and i imagine he must have had to throw everyone... which puts him at a disadvantage for future games if they fall within a few days.
Would you say they laid a licking on their opponent
(I'll show myself out now)
My son played in a similar game at a tournament in Cooperstown when he was 12. The other team, from California, scored 15 in the top of the first. It ended after three or four ining,s 31 - 0. The other team just kept hitting homeruns.
April 19th, 2013 at 10:14 PM ^
Shouldn't there be some kind of mercy rule? That's just embarassing. I would think after 15-20 runs it's just not going to happen.
April 19th, 2013 at 10:39 PM ^
Im sure they have a mercy rule, but most don't apply until at least the third inning anyway.
April 20th, 2013 at 10:59 PM ^
Yes, the typical mercy rule is 15 after 4 innings and 10 after 5.
April 19th, 2013 at 11:33 PM ^
Sucks to Suck
April 19th, 2013 at 11:37 PM ^
13 walks in 3 innings to go along with the 11 HBP. 24 guys reached base over three innings without the aid of a hit.
I doubt they were trying to throw at anybody, or injure anyone. Looks to me like their pitchers just couldn't hit a cow in the ass with a snow shovel.
April 20th, 2013 at 12:21 AM ^
April 20th, 2013 at 12:34 AM ^
Yes, there is a Licking County, Ohio. Newark (pronounced "Nurk") is there.
with a Columbus-based institution with a history of disregarding the rules getting beat 65-0?
Next question...
There should be a 20 or 25 run rule. The game stops even if it is in the middle of the game. I saw a high school team start bunting in the bottom of the second inning up by 20 runs a few years ago. Players should not have to be intentionally trying to get out, but that was the case.
You can't tell the team to stop swinging, and my bet is that the losing team couldn't find the plate that they walked in a ton of runners.
When you get these lower level no name schools, you just have to have rules in place to prevent these kinds of things.
These schools shouldn't even be playing, but they have to in many cases. Make it something like "up 25 after 2 (or any point later in the game)", "up 20 after 5 (or any point later in the game)," "up 15 after 8"
Losing 25-0 is no better, but it probably keeps you off Yahoo.com and lets everyone get home an hour and a half earlier.