At a Minnesota Junior College Athletic Conference state tournament game last Friday, the Central Lakes College softball team and coach Heidi Rogge (pictured right), beat Rochester Community and Technical College on an apparent walk off home run in the seventh inning. This is, until, Rochester's coach, Jean Musgjerd (pictured left), noticed that the batter slapped hands with a few of her teammates before she crossed home plate. The nerve! So Musgjerd literally got out her rule book—it's in there—and pointed out to the umps that such premature celebration is not allowed. They had no choice but to call the batter out. The game continued and Central Lakes—which had a no-hitter through seven—lost in extra innings.

"You don't want to win in that way, but you have to play by the rules," said Musgjerd, Rochester's coach since 1994. "You get schooled on the rulebook, and you find out really fast that you need to know it."

You don't want to win that way ... but you will. Even better, a closer reading of the rule book actually states that on first offense the team shall only be given a warning. Which means that "By The Rules" Musgjerd, as she likes to be known, played by incorrect rules and her team should have lost anyway. What does the rule book say about that?

Teammates' handslap to home run hitter erases victory [Minneapolis Star-Tribune]

Busted Coverage has the details:

Thankfully the closed circuit camera was rolling at Furman University last weekend in the middle of the sixth inning as WCU was on its way to yet another shutout loss and sweep at the hands of the Catamounts. This one gets going pretty quickly. At the 20-second mark look for a butch cut taking a swing at Furman fan. Get it on, ladies!

BC also discovered that the feisty woman who appears to start the whole kerfuffle was the mother of WCU's third baseman. Awk-ward! I was unaware that any bad blood existed between fans of Western Carolina and Furman Universities, but then again I choose to remain blissfully ignorant of most Southern traditions.

When Western Carolina And Furman Softball Fans Get Together There Will Be Punches Thrown [Busted Coverage]

Senior Sara Tucholsky of Western Oregon University had just hit the first homer of her career, but broke down like Barbaro upon reaching first.

She crawled back to first but could do no more. The first-base coach said she would be called out if her teammates tried to help her. Or, the umpire said, a pinch runner could be called in, and the homer would count as a single. Then, members of the Central Washington University softball team stunned spectators by carrying Tucholsky around the bases Saturday so the three-run homer would count — an act that contributed to their own elimination from the playoffs.

An inspiring tale indeed, but not quite enough to dent my cynical exterior. I'd need to see Prince Fielder being carried around the bases by Carlos Zambrano for that to happen.

'Unbelievable' Sportsmanship In Softball Game [MSNBC]

True word association should work like this:

Joey ... Chestnut
ESPN ... grope
Cheney ... sneer
racing ... sausages
Ned ... crutches
Soprano ... whacked
Cooper ... whacked

Care to play? We promise to keep all answers confidential.

Barbaro ...
ManBearPig ...
Bayless ...
Mike ...
mistake ...
crap ...
Clemens ...

Or, create your own! It's fun!*

* = May not be fun.

Cat Osterman: The Burnt Orange Nation Interview [Burnt Orange Nation]