The men in blue make Alabama see red and push the Tide to the edge

Jason Jackson wouldn't go there. He refused to say what he could've, would've and maybe should've said Saturday afternoon about the performance of the umpires in Game 1 of the NCAA Super Regional.

Which says an awful lot of good things about Alabama's interim head coach in the wake of a terribly difficult defeat.

Two wins away from the College World Series, locked in a classic with No. 1 seed Wake Forest, the Crimson Tide deserved better than a gut-punch 5-4 loss. Two hours away from a postgame trip to Dairy Queen, a park ball team would deserve better, too.

Considering that the otherwise first-class David F. Couch Ballpark in Winston-Salem, N.C., is barely big enough down the lines to host a 12-year-old all-star game, maybe that's where they found this crew, looking for work on a free weekend after Park Day.

At some of the biggest moments in the most inspiring Alabama baseball season in two decades, the men in blue had the visitors seeing red as they made multiple critical and inexplicable mistakes. Those mistakes made the difference between winning and losing the most important game of the season to date for both teams.

Let's turn our caps backward, kick up some dirt and say what Jackson didn't. The men charged with protecting the game failed it. ...

Read the rest of Kevin's critique of critical calls and praise for Alabama's interim head coach. Only in the Lede.

Caden Rose hit two home runs, but Alabama dropped its NCAA Super Regional Game 1 at Wake Forest 5-4.