One In A Million Shot As Softball Pitcher Hits Clump Of Dirt In Mid-Air, Nearly Blinds Catcher
It was a one in a million shot, doc
I'm not a big fan of trick-shot videos. It's some guy spending nine hours trying to bank a ping pong ball off of his dog's head and into a plastic cup and when he finally does it, he celebrates like he just won Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, when in reality, he's just a dude at his mom's house who wasted an entire day bouncing ping pong balls.
Sure, I get that the Dude Perfect guys are laughing to the bank by shooting baskets off of bridges and hitting tee shots through pool noodles or whatever, but it's not my bag.
However, what I saw out of a college softball game kind of blew my mind because it was an accidental trick shot that could not be replicated if given a million tries.
Oregon Ducks pitcher Lyndsey Grein was on the mound Friday night when the Ducks took on Mississippi in the Women's College World Series.
Grein delivered a 67 miles per hour pitch to Ole Miss' Mackenzie Pickens, and while that should be as routine as routine can be, Ducks catcher Emma Cox was in some serious discomfort and was favoring her eye.
It was unclear what the problem was until the replay showed that a dirt clod had come off of Grein's cleat during her delivery, and the ball clobbered it in mid-air like Randy Johnson clobbered a pigeon.
That sent bits of dirt flying toward home plate, which hit Cox in the eye.
Get that catcher some saline solution, STAT!
God help her if she wears contacts. Did you ever get debris in your contact lens? Ugh. Excruciating.
But Cox dropped a gutsy performance and stayed in the game without having to run off to the nearest chemistry lab to use the eye-wash station.
"I thought it was dirt from my glove that must have hit me," Cox said per the Oregon athletics website. "And I was like, OK, whatever. And then the umpire was like, no, it was a bug that flew into it and then the ball hit you, or the bug hit you in the face."
Alright, so the ump had no clue what happened either, but the tape doesn't lie. Hopefully, Cox is feeling better.
One thing that would've taken the sting out of some dirt in the eye is that the Ducks defeated Ole Miss in extra innings.