Published: May 17, 2008 11:36 pm            

From the Press Box: Wooster coach fires back at ‘classless’ accusation by Rose

TERRE HAUTE — It must be said that Friday’s NCAA Division III baseball regional between Rose-Hulman and Wooster, won by Wooster 11-8 in 13 innings on a two-out grand slam, was the most unusual game I have ever covered in my 16-year career, and conceivably, one of the most fascinating baseball games I’ve witnessed in 30 years of watching baseball as a fan or reporter.

It went from sublime to ridiculous sometime in the seventh inning and morphed from there into a madman’s fever dream. The dread of elimination had both team’s temperature up from the start, and enough controversy to last a season’s ensured that the teapot was going to explode at some point … and did it ever.

There were multiple things I haven’t seen in 30 years of watching baseball that were packed into one crazy game. I’ve seen successful umpire appeals on a runner tagging early, but I’ve never seen a run taken off the board and the restored. I’ve never seen a player throw his equipment at a ball, even at the youth level where you’d think it would happen more often. I’ve never seen catcher’s and batter’s interference called in the same game, much less both calls coming in extra innings with the game on the line.

And it’s entirely possible that I’ve never seen a walk-off grand slam in person, none jump immediately to mind, though I saw it again Saturday when Indiana State’s Brady Shoemaker hit a center field bomb against Illinois State to lift ISU to a 12-8 victory.

It was crazy, but it alone did not lead to ugliness at Art Nehf Field. I’ve not seen the umpires so completely determine the tenor of the game via one controversial call after another in a game of such importance. It’s not that they weren’t right — and really, that’s all you can ask for — but the long deliberations and perception of indecision undoubtedly raised hackles on both sides.

Because of all of the above, it’s unfortunate the indelible moment of the game will be the blow-up in the 13th inning of the Wooster coaching staff, leading to three Wooster coaches being ejected and a confrontation between Wooster first base coach Dan Wyand and Rose-Hulman coach Jeff Jenkins.

Due to the nature of our deadlines and the fact that Wooster played in the Friday evening game (won by Heidelberg 1-0), I was not able to talk to Wyand about Rose’s allegations that he verbally accosted Engineers’ first baseman Alex Decker or what set him off in his confrontation with Jenkins.

From a Journalism 101 standpoint, that’s not really fair. Even if most of you wanted to know what Rose-Hulman thoughts were about the melee, Wyand needs to have his say in the pursuit of both sides of the story.

Wooster left Terre Haute to return to Ohio on Saturday, so Wyand was able to read comments on the Fighting Scots behavior in the Tribune-Star.

“They’re a good ballclub, not a lot of class, but a good ballclub,” Jenkins said Friday.

Wyand called my office Saturday to give his side. Wyand’s problem wasn’t so much with the tenor of the players on the field, but the Rose-Hulman students directly behind first base and adjacent to Rose-Hulman’s dugout. The Engineers are normally in the third base dugout, but being the higher seed in a tournament game meant Rose-Hulman had to be on the visitor’s side astride first base.

“The fans on the fence, it was bad. They were on me, they were on our players, they were using profanity and making sexual comments about our players,” Wyand claimed. “It’s OK to root their team on, but this was terrible.”

Wyand said he brought it the comments to first base umpire Jim Muhleck’s attention midway through the game. Later, a NCAA official went out to observe the situation and a sportsmanship announcement was made to the crowd in the late innings of the scheduled nine. Wyand claims the comments “toned down” at that point, but Wyand was upset.

“I think that when their fans started getting our of hand, they let it go on,” Wyand alleged. “For [Jenkins] to come out in the paper and we say we’re a good team, but we’re classless, I think that’s wrong. They’re running the tournament and we’re classless?”

When reached Saturday, Jenkins said he hadn’t heard the comments from the Rose-Hulman fans that Wyand alleged.

“I don’t hear any of that stuff in the dugout. I control what goes on inside the fences. If he wants to take issue with the tournament director and security, they’re outside the fence. You can’t control what people say, but you can control what goes on inside the fence,” Jenkins said.

As for Wyand’s issues with Decker, Wyand admitted that he had some words with him during the 13th inning melee. Wyand felt that Decker got in the way of several baserunners during the game and approached Muhleck about it. According to Wyand, Muhleck warned Decker not to impede baserunners or Wooster runners would get an extra base. Jenkins said Saturday he wasn’t aware of the warning.

It came to a head in the middle of the 13th inning melee, when Wyand and Decker confronted each other.

“As [the melee] went on, I told the first base umpire, [interference with runners] has going on here for several innings,” Wyand said. “Their first baseman [Decker] turned and said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I told him its happened more than once.”

“He said, ‘Old man, you need to get back in the coaching box.’ Then, I said something I shouldn’t have said in response,” alleged Wyand, who didn’t specify what his comment was.

At that point, Jenkins came out of the Rose-Hulman dugout to confront Wyand.

“Their coach came out of the dugout and he’s yelling at me. I said, ‘That’s classless what you’re doing, and it’s classless what your fans are doing.’ We were separated, then I bumped the umpire and got ejected myself,” Wyand said.

Wyand admitted that when he realized the next day that Decker isn’t a regular first baseman — Decker is a catcher — he understood some of what happened with the baserunners.

Jenkins said Saturday that he had a conversation with Decker and Decker claimed Wyand said something to him first.

Wyand was otherwise complimentary of Rose-Hulman’s handling of the tournament, praising Rose-Hulman’s students and staff for running it in an efficient manner. He even complimented some of the fans who were yelling at him during the Rose-Hulman-Wooster game, who approached him later to say there was no hard feelings.

And Wyand didn’t take the blame entirely off himself.

“I was wrong to say something to their first baseman, I should have kept my cool. I’m embarrassed for my part in what happened,” Wyand said.

Todd Golden is sports editor of the Tribune-Star. He can be reached at (812) 231-4272 or todd.golden@tribstar.com.

        

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