Thursday afternoon, Coastal Carolina won the first College World Series national championship in school history.. The Chanticleers beat Arizona in the decisive Game 3 of the best-of-three series
The game was not without some controversy. In the third inning, the Wildcats had a runner on third with one out when outfielder Zach Gibbons hit a chopper back to Coastal Carolina starter Andrew Beckwith. Beckwith, who was named the CWS Most Outstanding Player, was able to throw home for the out. Check it out:
Beckwith showing off his fielding prowess!! Coastal escapes the 3rd after cutting down a run at the plate. #CWSpic.twitter.com/i1U6TdIQB8
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) June 30, 2016
Instant replay is available in the CWS, but it is limited. It can only be used in three instances: fair or foul balls, home run or ground rule double, or "trap" catches on fly balls. That's it. Replay can't even be used on bang-bang plays at first base, nevermind plays at the plate.
The runner was called out on Gibbons' chopper back to Beckwith and the call stood. There was no mechanism in place to review the play and potentially reverse the call. Some angles seems to indicate the tag was applied before the runner touched home plate. For example:
That's only one camera angle though. And it's a still image too. It's tough to tell whether the tag is actually being applied at that instant.
Here's a GIF of the plate at the plate:
So what do you think, safe or out? I lean towards out myself, but man, that is close. If that happened in the big leagues and the manager challenged, the video crew in New York might say the replay is inconclusive. That's really, really close.
That run would have given Arizona a 1-0 lead in the third inning, and, needless to say, scoring first changes everything. Coastal Carolina ended up taking a 2-0 lead later in the game and winning 4-3. That play at that plate looms large over the outcome.