Last weekend the Panther baseball team won one game out of three at home against the defending Ohio Valley Conference champions, Tennessee Tech

In the two games they lost, the umpires made questionable calls on close plays that swung the momentum of the game into the favor of Tennessee Tech.

Now I’m not saying the Golden Eagles didn’t earn those wins, but the call of a balk on senior pitcher Brent McNeil was questionable at best, and instead of clearing the bases with the runner picked off, the eventual winning run was moved into scoring position in the top half of the final inning.

McNeil still gave up that RBI single after the balk call, but the momentum shift was almost tactile in Coaches’ Stadium when the runner was told to take second base. Life was being sucked out of the crowd at that moment in the game.

Baseball’s rule book section on the balk is very vague and the balk rule is misunderstood by almost everyone who reads it, but if a pitcher is doing something considered a balk in his previous pickoff throws, why would the umpire wait to call it until it can almost decide the outcome of a game?

If you’re going to enforce the rule, enforce it, but don’t wait until the game is tied in the final inning to swing the momentum.

The other issue was with a base-runner at first base in the latter stages of Sunday’s game, and like the balk it brought head coach Jim Schmitz out of the dugout to converse with the umpire about the call.

A Panther runner was called out at first base on a play that looked extremely close and was a key out in the inning.

It looked to me as well as many of the other fans in attendance that the runner was safe, but the ump stood by his call despite everyone’s objections.

Neither of these calls directly resulted in the Panther losses, but in the late innings of close games they certainly swung the energy and momentum of the games in the favor of the Golden Eagles.

It’s too late to reverse the calls, and even if they were overturned it wouldn’t change the outcome of the games. The Panthers had chances to overcome these calls and they didn’t.

I’m not making excuses for the Panthers, but seriously, the job of the umpires is to officiate the game, not turn its tide.

Brad Kupiec can be reached at 581-7944 or bmkupiec@eiu.edu