The LSU Tigers and South Carolina Gamecocks met in Hoover during the SEC Tournament for a memorable extra innings game. It was a game that LSU head coach Jay Johnson was ejected from following a controversial play.
It was the 10th inning and South Carolina decided to try and force this issue by stealing home. It, seemingly, didn’t work with catcher Brady Neal jumping up and tagging out the runner. Except, after a conference, it was determined that Neal touched home while waiting for the throw. That made it a catcher’s balk and the Gamecocks were awarded a run for the play.
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Following the game, Jay Johnson provided his reaction to the controversial play and explained what happened from his own perspective.
“I don’t want to get too much into all of that,” Jay Johnson said. “It’s a good crew. They basically called it a catcher balk and basically said Brady came out in front of the plate before the pitch. I think I was upset because it’s not a reviewable play.”
In the moment, Jay Johnson was obviously frustrated and let the umpires hear about it. That led to Johnson getting ejected from the game.
“Now, the foundation of umpiring is always to get the call right, and I do respect that. I’m going to have to look at it again and get an explanation and all those types of things,” Johnson said.
“But at least it was explained to me that it was a catcher balk, but the first thing he said is, you’re not going to like this. Then yeah. I’ve never seen that called before. I’ve got to be honest. Long time coaching college baseball, 24 years now or whatever. I’ve never seen that called.”
Even with the call going against LSU in the 10th, the Tigers were still able to win the game after they scored twice in the bottom half of the 10th inning. That means LSU is moving on to the SEC Tournament Championship where they’ll take on the top-seeded Tennessee Volunteers.
Initially, it was reported by the ESPN broadcast that Jay Johnson would be suspended for the SEC Tournament Championship due to the ejection. However, they later issued a correction, noting that he will be available to coach in the championship.
Jay Johnson explains being ejected after balk call goes against LSU
Jay Johnson left the field quickly after being ejected arguing the balk, a decision he ended up explaining after the game.
“No, I’m not messing with anything,” Johnson said during a postgame interview. “We got too much important baseball coming tomorrow and the NCAA Tournament… The umpire crew, once I was ejected, it was like ‘You got to leave right now. Otherwise, there’s going to be a suspension.’ We fought too hard to get to this position. So I basically walked off the field.”
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