Coach of team that lost on dropped third strike in viral video shares uplifting message
Video of the Hornell High School baseball team went viral over the weekend, to the chagrin of the squad’s players and coaches.
While playing in the New York Section V, Class B1 final against Palmyra-Macedon, Hornell held a 5-1 lead in the final inning, the New York Post reported.
Palmyra-Macedon cut the lead to 5-4 and had two runners on with two outs when a batter was ruled by the home-plate umpire to have struck out. The catcher dropped the ball and had to throw to first for the out or tag out the batter to end the game.
Neither happened as the Hornell players began to celebrate. The batter took off for first base and Palmyra-Macedon’s runners circled the bases with the tying and winning runs on the dropped third strike play.
This video went viral over the weekend and it featured both teams celebrating victory at one point.
Hornell took the loss, and coach Joe Flint told the Wellsville Sun he had regrets.
“I blame myself a little, maybe I could have gone out and argued it was a dead ball and kept the runner on third and said, ‘Hey it’s tied now, put the runner on third and make them beat us.’ But we can’t blame the umpires, everyone is running on the field and I’m not sure they knew how to handle it either,” Flint told the Sun.
“I’m not sure what else happened because I haven’t watched the video. Maybe I should have called for a conference and protested. I blame myself on that piece of it, maybe I could have done a better job.”
As the video shows, it was a chaotic scene on the field.
While Flint and the players may never want to watch that video, he has since offered an inspirational message to the team of teenagers.
“The kids have been talking about it. I’m giving them the best advice I can,” Flint told the Sun. “They are hanging in there … the catcher is certainly not doing that great. But there’s only so much you can do. People are going to say things, but time will heal it. This won’t go away, I told them 20 years from now it’s going to bother you, but the sun will come up tomorrow and other things in life will happen that are better. But we will remember it, we have to own it and always have each other’s back.”
