Ok, so you hire incompetent umps or there is a policy to move games along. When a strike is being called well into the opposite batters box what would you expect one to think?
And I know this is done. Not at PG firsthand, but I know at large venues with lots of teams it can be a policy.
SomeBaseballDad,
I umpired some games at the PG Florida qualifier for Jupiter in Ft. Myers as the culmination of a weeklong college umpiring clinic week before you were there.
When I wasn't working games, I watched other games, paying more attention to the umpires than the players.
I also met PG's national director of umpiring.
Is there any chance PG would instruct umpires to hurry things up by calling more strikes? Absolutely not. The week I was there, early morning showers delayed games on the last day of pool play, which had the potential to delay the championship bracket. The only message to our crew was, "Your game will be on field x and will start at thus-and-such time."
Is there any chance PG roots for certain teams and would try to ease their path into or through the championship bracket? Absolutely not. They care about seeing players.
Does PG hire incompetent umpires? Absolutely not. As PGStaff said, they are very picky about who they hire. Some of the other attendees at my clinic were college umpires who have not been able to break into the PG lineup.
Can an umpire have a bad game? Absolutely.
Can an umpire--even a good umpire--fall into bad positioning or tracking habits that make him susceptible to call strikes beyond the outside edge that even spectators can tell are outside for their entire trajectory? Absolutely. That's why we do cage work--to try to keep bad habits from creeping in.
If you think it was "very apparent" that the tournament officials favored a team or that umpires deliberately called the game to affect the outcome or to speed up the game, then it is "very apparent" you were too close to the situation to form an objective opinion.
It's possible your plate umpire lost the outside edge that day. It's not possible that it was due to favoritism or expedience or hiring incompetent umpires. Players have bad days. Coaches have bad days. Umpires have bad days. We all feel bad when they happen and try to learn from them to minimize the potential of repeating our mistakes.