Northern Highlands' baseball season ends on controversial call that wipes out tying homer

Northern Highlands’ baseball season ended in gut-wrenching controversy Wednesday, with a game-tying, three-run homer in the seventh inning erased by an umpire’s call.

The Highlanders lost at Mount Olive, 3-0, in the first round of the North 1, Group 3 sectional after it was ruled the first of the three runners to reach home did not touch the plate.

Senior Beckham Stern’s two-out, three-run homer to right field tied the score, until Mount Olive appealed and the home-plate umpire ruled in the Marauders’ favor and signaled a game-ending – and season-ending − out for the Highlanders.

“I just wish the actions of the players determined the outcome on the field, and not the umpire call,” Northern Highlands coach Paul Albarella said Thursday.

In a video taken from behind home plate and shared with NorthJersey.com, it shows Northern Highlands’ dugout-clearing celebration, though it’s unclear if the first runner touched the plate. It’s clear that the next two runners touched the plate, with Stern landing right on it.

Northern Highlands argued that all three runners touched the plate and contacted the NJSIAA, but the state’s governing athletic organization said Mount Olive handled the appeal properly and the ruling on the field is a judgment call.

“According to the [NJSIAA], they did everything as far as the appeal,” Albarella said. “Everything they did, the state says [Mount Olive] did properly. But as far as the touching of home plate, unfortunately that’s the umpire’s judgment call, and we have no recourse as far as challenging that.”

There were runners on first and second when Stern pulled a 1-1 pitch over the fence in right to help 10th-seeded Northern Highlands (13-15) tie the score with seventh-seeded Mount Olive (16-9). The call sends Mount Olive into Wednesday’s quarterfinals at No. 2 Ramapo (16-12).

“It’s like I told them,” Albarella said, “‘Listen, I know we’re not advancing in the tournament, but you did not lose this game. We tied this game, 3-3, in the last inning, and that’s what you have to take from it. And you guys battled to the end, right to the last pitch, and we tied the game.’ So I just feel for our players, and our seniors, and they deserve a better outcome than that was.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Northern Highlands' baseball season ends on controversial call that wipes out tying homer