A Texas high school softball catcher has been accused of intentionally throwing at batters, and social media is in uproar over the videos.
During McCamey High School's playoff game against Cisco High School in McCamey's Area Championship series over the weekend, McCamey's catcher repeatedly hit a Cisco batter in the helmet with a throw supposedly meant for the third baseman. The incident is so bizarre that the Texas University Interscholastic League is investigating it.
Take a look for yourself and be the judge of what happened:
Texas HS Softball Catcher Accused of Intentionally Hitting Batters
First occurrence?? pic.twitter.com/u59GncoCaE
— Kayler Smith - KMID (@KaylerSmithTV) May 10, 2023
In one video, the McCamey catcher appears to throw to third base — despite the runner on second not heading for third — which led to one parent audibly asking, "What was that?"
In another instance, the catcher again attempts to throw to third base this time while a runner is on third. In both videos, the batter appears to step outside the batter's box, very clearly not trying to cause any interference.
The videos were first shared on Facebook by the father of one the Cisco hitters, Dustin Ferguson, who claims that McCamey coach Michael Woodard is teaching these "antics" to his players. He also says that doing this is an "attempt to get an interference call and get a cheap out." The post has more than 500,000 views on Facebook and the videos have been reposted to Twitter and TikTok. Many of the commenters appear to be parents who were not happy in the slightest.
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations Softball Rulebook, any interference by a batter during an attempted putout by a catcher results in a dead ball and the batter being out.
While no one was ejected following these suspicious plays, KMID's Kayler Smith reported that the Texas University Interscholastic League was investigating and put out a statement saying they were "aware of an incident that occurred during the McCamey vs. Cisco Softball Playoff Series and is in contact with the school administrations to gather additional information."
Things get even spicier to this story, however. KMID reported that Coleman Today described two other instances of the McCamey catcher doing this against Coleman in a different playoff game. The play described is basically the same thing that happened in the videos above.
MORE: Excerpts from ?Coleman Today? say this also happened twice to a Coleman player during the first round of the playoffs. pic.twitter.com/swnAWCh3lD
— Kayler Smith - KMID (@KaylerSmithTV) May 10, 2023
McCamey wound up losing the game to Cisco, ending their season.
