I worked the Central Washington @ MSU-Billings double header last Saturday. I'm hear to tell you, I 'bout sh!t my pants on several occasions.
I worked their games their 1st year, 4-5 years ago and got drilled by a line drive while working the bases. In the 2-man system (2 umpires vs 3 or 4), as a base ump your best position, with a runner(s) on, is a line from home to the edge of the pitchers mound and about 1/2 way from the mound to the base lines (between 1st-2nd & 2nd-3rd). This gives you better angles on pick-off attempts, base stealing, etc.
I had several "shots" at me but never got hit. Just a few "oh sh!ts". Long story short, I was back to within a step of the baselines by the end of the game, which is way out of position. But in a 31-7 game I didn't really give a sh!t about position. (31-7 going into bottom of 9th, MSU-B scores 8...)
Speaking of "end of the game", the 1st game Saturday was 31-15 CWU. 46 runs on 51 hits. The 51 hits were 1 shy of the NCAA D-II record.
And back to Aluminum bats, when you have 5' 10" guys hitting 420' HR's maybe wooden bats should be used. One guy hit the "batters eye" screen (black screen in center to help the batter see the ball better) which sits above the 410' sign in dead center @ Dehler Park. Another guy hit the fence in right-center that encloses Dehler Park. That fence sits approx 20' past the playing field fence. Another 400'+ shot.
46 runs/51 hits...nice pitching.
