A pleasant amateur baseball game in Wisconsin turned ugly when one team was forced to forfeit the game, after its pitcher & catcher were accused of purposely beaning the umpire.

The MADISON CAPITAL TIMES hurls up news that umpires had stopped Sunday’s game between local teams McFarland & Monona after three McFarland players were ejected over the beaning incident.

Hitting an ump on purpose - haven’t we heard this one before?

Anyway, the problems all began during the sixth inning, when McFarland catcher Pete Patten was jawing with home plate umpire Rich Fronheiser over the ump’s strike zone. Displeased with Fronheiser’s calls, McFarland’s players decided to do something about it.

With the first pitch of the seventh inning, McFarland hurler Cory Schuchardt threw a fastball that struck Fronheiser “in the chest protector and knocked him back a few steps.” The ump immediately ejected Patten, claiming that the catcher didn’t move & purposefully allowed the pitch to hit him, and also ejected Schuchardt, believing that the pitcher was in on the beaning plan.

When McFarland manager Darrell Kranz came out to argue the ejections, Fronheiser & base umpire David Thom ejected him, too. But even after the three tossings, the fun still continued:

After more arguing, Thom warned McFarland that it had to leave the field of play and regroup while it replaced its ejected players. According to Thom, some of the McFarland players instead began arguing about whether the pitch should be ruled a ball or a strike, so Thom called the game and awarded Monona the victory by forfeit.

And it was more than McFarland players who were upset:

Fronheiser and Thom headed for their vehicles, but Fronheiser returned briefly after realizing he forgot to leave the game balls with the home team. After he rolled the balls toward the field of play, at least one McFarland fan picked up the balls and threw them at Fronheiser.

League officials are investigating whether the umpire’s beaning was intentional. In the meantime, it’s hard to imagine where amateur ballplayers would get such ideas to act so unsportsmanlike.