Brawl breaks out at Centene Stadium
A crowd of 1,064 at Centene Stadium saw quite the show Thursday when a massive brawl broke out during a game between the Great Falls Voyagers and the visiting Billings Mustangs.
It all started in the top of the seventh when Billings batter Shane Mardirosian called for time. Voyager pitcher Chris Freudenberg went ahead and threw it anyway, narrowly missing Mardirosian. Mardirosian didn’t take to it kindly, and the dugouts and bullpens cleared.
“It was just an unfortunate series of events,” said Voyager manager Cole Armstrong, who was later ejected, after the game.
He took a long pause, followed by a deep breath.
“The short and simple answer is a guy calls time, which he has always right to do. Time was called late. As a pitcher, when you are in your full motion and time gets called and you try to stop, your arms lags behind the ball and you lose the ball. I can 100 percent see their point of view on that may have looked bad. The ball got away from him when he tried to stop his motion. That’s what I saw. And things escalated from there.”
Mardirosian was subsequently walked.
As he walked to first, he flipped his bat, high and far. Freudenberg didn’t like that and words were again exchanged and everyone came out once more, led by Armstrong, who charged onto the field and had a heated exchange with a member of the Billings coaching staff. Armstrong was upset with the way Mardirosian tossed his bat.
“Yeah, and make no mistake, I’m not on the field,” he said. “Nobody wants anything like that to happen on the field at any point and our club is just as much to blame as their club. I’m not even considered with their club or what their club did. I’m concerned with our club and how we go forward from here. You could ask anybody in that situation what they could’ve been mad about or anything like that, and they are going to have something. Things like that don’t happen without other people being mad about something. I’m not going to split hairs about how it happened or why it happened or anything like that. It happened.
“Unfortunately it is something that happens in this game from time to time and we’ll address what needs to be addressed with our players. And I know (Dick) Schofield (Billings’ manager) over there is a great baseball man, and he’s going to know how to handle things in their locker room. And we’re going to come out (Friday) and we are going to play a ballgame. For me, as far as I’m concerned, that’s it. What happened tonight, for us, is left on the field. From our end, there’s going to be no kind of retaliation. I don’t feel like we need to retaliate for anything. Like I said, it’s something that happens. It’s that time of year. Everybody wants to win. Everyone wants to win ballgames and emotions can run high and things like that can happen. All we can do is move on from here and go out and play a good, clean ballgame (Friday).
Everyone retreated once more, and Mardirosian took first base, until Freudenberg, on the next pitch, pegged the following batter, Jonathan Martijn. Without hesitation, the designated hitter for the Mustangs charged the mound, aggressively. Freudenberg crouched down right when the two collided, and he flipped Martijn, somersaulting him into the air. Vicious punches were thrown as both teams fought out above the mound. Players were dragged along the field underneath a large dogpile.
Armstrong was asked if Freudenberg intentionally hit Martijn.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I can’t even imagine why anybody would think that. We’ve lost seven straight. Why would Freudenberg, why would he hit someone with the bases loaded and nobody out? Absolutely not. But, like I said, emotions run high and when something like that happens … everyone on that field is a competitor. And everybody has a switch. And when that player got hit, his switch flipped and all hell broke loose. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”
Both managers were tossed, as were three Mustangs players and Freudenberg.
The Voyagers (29-34, 12-15 second-half) lost the game 8-2. Billings improved to 31-33 overall and 14-13 in the season’s second half. They meet again Friday night at Centene at 7.