New York high school baseball championship goes viral for unfortunate ending

Fourth ranked Hornell and second ranked Palmyra-Macedon were locked in a 5-4 contest with the underdog just one strike from the upset in the New York state Section V baseball championship.

For those who haven’t seen the video, which has been doing the rounds on social medial and has even been featured on ESPN’s SportsCenter, here it is in all it’s glory:

For the uninitiated, the catcher did not cleanly catch the third strike. If there are less than two outs and first base is unoccupied, the batter is not out until tagged or the ball is thrown to first base. The third strike with two outs must be secured whether or not first base is occupied.

The catcher tried to make the tag on the batter and missed, turning to the umpire who signalled safe - indicating that the tag was not applied. For some reason, the catcher did not notice the signal and began to celebrate wildly with his team mates around the mound, thinking that they had won the title.

The problem is that the base runners continued to run and two runners crossed the plate, giving Palmyra-Macedon the win by a score of 6-5.

It does no good to point out that at their age, these players should know better. Yogi Berra’s voice should be ringing in every player’s ears, saying, “It ain’t over til it’s over.” And while it is a brutal way to end a game, and perhaps even an unjust one, it is all perfectly within the rules of the game.

And while there are arguments that the play should have been stopped as soon as other players from the dugouts ran onto the field, meaning that the tying run would score but not the winning run, the fact remains that as a player, you have to play until the play is done. This is a brutal way for these young men to learn that lesson, but it is one that they are sure to never forget.