Moorpark Unified School District has officially appealed the outcome of Friday night’s CIF-Southern Section Division 2 baseball championship game.
Newhall-Hart High was awarded the championship plaque late Friday at Diamond Stadium in Lake Elsinore, despite an apparent — and now much-debated — walk-off two-run home run hit by Moorpark’s Taylor Busch in the bottom of the seventh inning.
The umpiring crew first awarded the home run, allowing Greg Lareva and Busch to circle the bases, score the tying and winning runs, respectively, and celebrate at home plate with their teammates.
The ruling was then changed to a ground-rule double and Hart capitalized on its second chance to strand Lareva and Busch and win the game, 7-6.
Moorpark High athletic director Rob Dearborn has been coaching and administering high school athletics for 38 years.
“And it’s by far the craziest game that I’ve ever witnessed,” Dearborn said.
The events of the bottom of the seventh have been hotly debated online since a viral video posted by @FiveToolCA, a baseball recruiting site, seemed to show the ball clearing the left-field fence. Others argued a zoomed-in version of the video showed the ball bounced on the warning track first. Hart High principal Jason d'Autremont released a statement on social media Saturday saying the school’s photographer had images of the ball coming down in the field of play.
“Few would argue that this is an extremely unique situation,” Moorpark Unified said in a statement. “That’s why our ultimate goal — and one that we hope is shared by CIF — is to ensure that whoever holds the title trophy in the end will be able to look at it with pride, not with the lingering question of whether it was fairly won.”
“An appeal provides an opportunity to more fully review other key moments in the game that may have impacted the final outcome. And second, we hope our appeal may lead to a broader conversation within CIF-Southern Section to consider changes to its procedures that may help avoid similar circumstances in the future.”
In the aftermath of the online debate, Southern Section spokesman Thom Simmons gave a statement to the Los Angeles Times, saying, “Instant replay is not allowed by rule in high school baseball. It was a judgment call, and as such, it stands as final.”
But Moorpark’s appeal contends that the umpiring crew ignored the judgement call of the umpire in the best position to make the call.
“The guy with the best view says, ‘It’s a home run,’ ” said Dearborn, who has a long history of officiating himself. “The home plate umpire overruled him. I don’t know how he does that, because he’s further away (from the ball).
“You just never want the umpires to determine the game. … It wasn’t a championship crew. You want a championship crew in a championship game.”
Moorpark head coach Aaron Garcia pointed to Article 4 of Rule 10 of the National Federation of State High School Associations baseball rule book, which deals with umpires.
“No umpire shall criticize or interfere with another umpire’s decision unless asked by the one making it,” the rule states.
According to Garcia, the umpires held up the baserunners as they rounded the bases, two of the umpires — the third base and home plate umpires — discussed the play and the third base umpire signaled for a home run.
Therefore, Garcia argues, the second umpire conference, which resulted in the home run being changed to a ground rule double, was against the rules.
“That’s not in the rules,” Garcia said. “They can’t overturn that.”
If the game needed to be restarted after it was concluded, Dearborn believes there should have been a warmup period for the teams.
“The home run call is the biggest travesty because they allowed the kids to run around the bases, they allowed them to celebrate and then they said, ‘Hey, we’re going to resume play again,’ ” Dearborn said.
“You think about the energy you’re expending when you (celebrate a championship).”
Joe Curley is a staff writer for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com . For more coverage, follow @vcspreps on Twitter , Instagram and Facebook .
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Moorpark Unified files appeal of Friday's controversial loss in CIF-SS baseball final
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