Tennessee's Tony Vitello livid over controversial call in series against Arkansas; Razorbacks' Dave Van Horn says it was right call
The Tennessee Vols lost the rubber game of a three-game series to the Arkansas Razorbacks last Saturday thanks in large part to a controversial balk call that led to UT giving up five runs. Arkansas outfielder Charles Davalan led off the bottom of the third inning with a single to right field. Davalan then appeared […]
The Tennessee Vols lost the rubber game of a three-game series to the Arkansas Razorbacks last Saturday thanks in large part to a controversial balk call that led to UT giving up five runs.
Arkansas outfielder Charles Davalan led off the bottom of the third inning with a single to right field. Davalan then appeared to get picked off by Vols RHP Tegan Kuhns during the next at bat. The first base umpire, however, called a balk on Kuhns. So instead of no one on base and one out, Arkansas had a runner on second base and no outs. The inning quickly went south from there, thanks to an error and a couple of walks that led to a grand slam.
The game was pretty much out of reach for Tennessee at that point.
Here's the balk that led to the disastrous inning.
Kuhns' left knee apparently buckled to begin the move (maybe it was more obvious from behind him).
Tennessee's Tony Vitello appeared on The Tony Basilio Show on Monday morning and he made it clear that he thought it was a bad call.
"I've coached first base, I've coached third base, and then recently become a head coach, and at all three of those spots, which spans almost 15 years, I've been complaining about that call," said Vitello. "And I've been complaining [about] that call to people that are authorities, too. And the bottom line is, it's no longer a call."
"Everybody learns how to balk legally, and so they get away with it," continued Vitello. "So if you see our scouting reports, almost every other guy, the scouting reports reads, 'front knee balk move'. Which means you're kind of buckling that front knee, but everybody gets away with it. And in this case, I haven't watched the video because I don't want to kill anybody."
Essentially, it's a move that's a balk by the rule book, but it rarely (if ever) gets called.
Typically, and I'm not saying this is the case in this situation, stuff like this gets called when the opposing team tells the umpire to keep an eye on a certain move. It's up to the umpire's discretion to acquiesce that request, but it's something that happens in sports quite often. Whether or not that was the case here is anyone's guess.
Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn, by the way, said on Saturday after the game that he thought it was a balk.
"We all thought he balked in the dugout," said Van Horn. "Did you guys (reporters) think he balked? Did you break it down? Do you think Tony (Vitello) thought he balked?"
"The TV [broadcast] said he didn't? Well, one of those guys (ESPN's Chris Burke) played at Tennessee, so I'm not buying that one. It was different than his other moves….it did look like he did from our side of the field."
Ultimately, the call was what the call was. And Tennessee lost the game. It doesn't matter if 1,000 experts get on national television and say it was the wrong call, it's still going down as a loss for the Vols.
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That’s why we love college baseball
