A team you love to hate

I think every league has a team that everybody loves to hate. While waiting for the regional final softball game to start Tuesday in Smackover, I was sitting at a table with two coaches from Fouke, which had just lost to Horatio in the third place game.
Fans from Bismarck were walking toward the field and exchanged pleasantries with the coaches, asking how their game had turned out and wishing them luck in the upcoming state tournament.
It was all nice, warm and fuzzy until the fans walked out of ear shot.
Then, one of the coaches said to the other, "Smackover can't beat them bad enough for me."
Bismarck went undefeated in that league in softball so maybe it was a little sour grapes. But, something tells me there's more to it than that.
Bismarck and its fans strode into the game with a lot of confidence. Nothing wrong with that. Smackover did the same thing.
But, there was something a little different about the Lady Lions.
Sure enough, when Smackover took a 4-0 lead, there was some belly aching going on. Finally, a Bismarck player was thrown out at the plate to end one of the latter innings. It was a close call.
So, the next two pitches by Bismarck in the bottom of the inning, their catcher doesn't even attempt to catch them. After getting drilled by the second pitch, the homeplate umpire calls timeout, takes the catcher over to the Bismarck dugout and has a few words with the coach.
I don't know what was said, but she went back to catching the ball after that.
I must say, this was my first opportunity to cover Bismarck's softball team but I'm on the same page as the Fouke coaches.