CBB Column: Rumblings from Around the Nation

During the season, I will be providing random thoughts from around the nation. On Saturday night, We had Pat Murphy of Arizona State get ejected in the fifth inning as his Sun Devils went on to lose to the Oregon State Beavers. He tried to spark his team which ended up losing the game but picked up a victory on Sunday to salvage a game from the Beavers. ASU is now 4-5 over the last nine games with some of their pitching struggling to find their stuff. You have to love seeing coaches going out and arguing calls trying to spark their team to a victory. Thanks to CBB writer Bryan Young for the picture of the ejection.

We have to talk about the Clemson/Duke series finale on Sunday which ended in a tie between the two squads after a lighting/rain delay in the 11th inning after the Tigers took an 8-6 lead but the game was called after the home run for lighting. Both teams were taken off the field while the teams waited the mandatory 30 minutes due to lighting being in the Durham area the field was left uncovered. The delay went on for a few hours with heavy rain falling on the field which caused it to become unplayable for the rest of the day. The umps decided to call the game and the result was a 6-6 tie between the squads. This type of decision by the Duke coaching staff was smart as the Tigers would have picked up a full game on the Blue Devils in the standings which would make it more difficult for Duke to make the conference tourney as they are chasing the Tigers. Is it the right thing to do? Absolutely not, but until the ACC changes the rules this situation will arise in the near future again.