Grand Ridge’s Jim Heth umpired at 1A/2A state baseball

Grand Ridge native and Ottawa High School alumni Jim Heth was selected as part of the 12-man crew that umpired the Class 1A and 2A state baseball Final Four this past weekend at Illinois Field in Champaign.

“It was an honor,” Heth said. “As an umpire, just like the players and coaches, the goal is to get to state. This was my 13th year umpiring high school baseball and the first time I’ve been chosen for the Final Four.”

Heth said that during the regular season, umpires earn ratings from the coaches of the games they work on how well the performed.

“Every game you umpire, the coaches are supposed to give you a rating from one to five, with one being the best and five being the worst,” Heth explained. “Some do, some don’t.

“The IHSA baseball administrator Sam Knox tracks those ratings during the regular season, and I believe bases who gets postseason assignments on those ratings.”

Heth earned spots umpiring at the Dwight Regional, Mendota Sectional and the Geneseo Supersectional before getting the notification that he was selected to be at the 1A and 2A State Finals.

At Champaign, Heth was the arbiter at third base Friday night for the 2A semifinal between Teutopolis and Sterling Newman, then Saturday he made the calls at first in the 1A third-place game between Lexington and Pawnee.

“The 2A semifinal game pretty much played itself, but the 1A third-place game we had all kinds of close plays,” Heth said. “From an umpire’s standpoint, the two games were night and day as far as tough calls go.”

Heth, who also umpires softball and officiates basketball, said it was an outstanding experience.

“It was a lot of fun,” Heth said. “The facility there was outstanding, and the people there that were in charge of the umpires helped us out and were awesome.

“Hopefully I get selected to do it again.”