Thankfully, inarguably the worst softball call of the season didn't come back to haunt the Tennessee Vols in a thrilling win over UCLA in the Women's College World Series. We're of course talking about the Megan Grant 2-run homer, with the Bruins star clearly missing home plate.
We saw it, you saw it and Tennessee head coach Karen Weekly 100 percent did too. The fact that this went to review, but then it was deemed 'unreviewable' because of Appendix G in the rule book made things worse. Weekly was of course asked about the controversial play and she didn't hold back at all with her thoughts.
Lady Vols HC Karen Weekly was not happy at all over missed call on the Megan Grant HR
“I think everybody but four people saw the play at the plate,” Weekly said after the Tennessee win. “We saw in the dugout she had missed the plate and then we saw that her teammates had kind of pushed her back. By rule, that should have been nullified."
Weekly isn't wrong here. Anyone with decent vision saw that Grant didn't touch home and then her teammates pushed her back to make sure she made contact with the plate. It was a game-tying, 2-run homer in the top of the seventh, but this game should have been over.
It was a joke too that such a lengthy review took place, only for it to not matter in the end. Can you imagine the reaction had the Lady Vols suffered a loss and not moved on to the national semifinals? People would be livid and even Greg Sankey would have had to blast the umpires.
Thankfully, Tennessee was able to overcome this unnecessary adversity and post a walk-off win in the bottom of the ninth. The Lady Vols had to put in some extra work to get the job done, but if anything, this should now serve as extra motivation to keep this dream ride going. Let's hope the umps will make some better decisions moving forward, though.