The Arkansas Razorbacks beat the Oklahoma State Cowgirls 12-0 in six innings in the Fayetteville Regional on Sunday. There wasn't much drama as the Razorbacks jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first and run ruled OSU in the 6th, but things did get kind of weird early in the final half-inning when the first base umpire turned his back and briefly stopped paying attention in the middle of a play at his own bag.
Arkansas shortstop Atalyia Rijo hit the ball down the first base line where it hit in fair territory and then appeared to bounce off the outside of the bag before it was fielded by OSU's Karli Godwin. While home plate umpire Steve Gould called the ball fair, first base umpire Bobby DeMayo turned his back to the play and started to walk away.
DeMayo then casually turned around in time to make the correct safe call at the bag. He was especially fortunate because Rijo seemed to slow down as the umpire turned his back as if the play was over, but then sped up in time to beat the first baseman to the bag.
The play was upheld on review and no harm to either team was really done so we can just kind of appreciate how weird this was.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as College Softball Umpire Briefly Stops Paying Attention During Fayetteville Regional.
