In a jaw-dropping development, Coastal Carolina’s head baseball coach was ejected with his team’s season on the line.
Kevin Schnall was tossed in the first inning of Game 2 of the College World Series final against LSU on Sunday afternoon for arguing balls and strikes.
Schnall took a few steps onto the field, held up three fingers and appeared to say, “You missed three pitches,” before home plate umpire Angel Campos removed him from the elimination game against LSU in Omaha.
The stunning hook led to an even more animated argument on the field, during which another umpire ended up on the ground.
Coastal Carolina first base coach Matt Schilling was also ejected amid the mayhem.
The ejections were the result of “prolonged arguing,” the NCAA said, which carries a two-game suspension. That meant Schnall and Schilling’s seasons were over regardless of what happened in Game 2.
LSU won Game 1 of the best-of-three series, snapping the 26-game winning streak that the 13th-seeded Coastal Carolina the College World Series final.
Game 2 was scoreless when Schnall and Schilling were ejected, with associate head coach Chad Oxendine stepping into Schnall’s role.
The ejections earned strong reactions on social media, including from ESPN baseball insider Jeff Passan.
“There are very few combinations of words in the English language that warrant ejecting a coach from an elimination game in the Men’s College World Series finals,” Passan wrote on X. “And yet Coastal Carolina’s Kevin Schnall — and first-base coach Matt Schilling — just got run in the first inning.”
The Chanticleers made the NCAA Tournament in 21 of the last 25 seasons and won the championship in 2016.
With News Wire Services
