Reds win protest, Chiefs feel ‘shafted’

Coquitlam Reds stomped their feet and ended up shaking off –– barely –– Surrey’s gritty Fraser Valley Chiefs on Tuesday at Mundy Park.

The Reds won a protest ruling with the B.C. Premier Baseball League that forced a replay of the end of the third and deciding game in the quarter-final playoff series for players aged 16-18 years. The roster-depleted Chiefs were immense underdogs going into the match-up versus the Reds, who finished second in the 11-team league standings to Fraser Valley’s seventh.

Brent Lawrence lashed a single over second base in the bottom of the 11th inning to score his brother, Braxton, from third base as the Reds prevailed 3-2 and advanced to the final four tournament starting tonight (Friday) in Nanaimo.

After getting drubbed 10-0 in Saturday’s first game, the Chiefs surprisingly bounced back to win Game 2 by a 6-4 count and forced a third contest Sunday. There, the game was knotted 2-2 in the top of the ninth inning when the Chiefs lashed a double with the bases loaded and two out to apparently score three runs and take command. However, an infield umpire was struck with the ball on a play preceding that after it deflected off a Reds player’s glove. The play should have been allowed to continue, with Coquitlam being given a chance to get the final out, but the ump ruled the play dead and allowed the Chiefs’ runners to advance and load the bases.

Reds manager Bill Green promptly protested after the game and a decision to go back to before the incident first occurred –– with the score 2-2 in the top of the ninth inning Tuesday –– was granted by league officials.

“It’s not the greatest way to win it but we were right and nobody blamed us for doing it,” Green said. “When a ball hits directly off an umpire it’s dead but if if deflects off a player first it’s a live ball. Everybody knows it, the ump just didn’t.”

Chiefs coach Dennis Springenatic saw it differently, saying: “I think we got shafted. What bothers me is you can’t go back in time and erase a play just because the umpire made the wrong call.”

Reds’ ace Allan Fisher pitched the win in Game 3, and also had two hits. The Reds open the BCPBL four-team playoff round-robin tonight versus the North Shore Twins. Langley and the host Pirates are also competing.