Clemson coach Erik Bakich isn’t holding back with his opinion on a substance check that Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan requested Sunday. The instance occurred in the bottom of the 10th inning in Game 2 of Super Regional action between the Gators and Tigers.
Clemson pitcher Austin Gordon had just thrown his 10th strikeout through 4.1 innings, setting a new career high. That is when Florida requested the substance check, and umpires approached Gordon and asked him to remove his hat, which had a dark spot on the brim.
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Lead umpire Billy Van Raaphorst inspected Gordon’s hate briefly before returning it and allowing him to play on. Bakich deemed the entire sequence “stupid” when addressing the moment in a press conference Wednesday.
“That was stupid,” he said. “Florida initiated it. That was dumb. He licks his fingers and touches the dirt and touches his hat. Austin Gordon doesn’t use sticky stuff. He doesn’t need it. He’s nasty. That was dumb.”
Erik Bakich was asked in a follow-up question if it were disappointing to see Kevin O’Sullivan be the one to request the check. The two worked together briefly when both were assistants at Clemson in 2002.
“A little bit,” Bakich said. “Whatever.”
Gordon would finish the inning before being taken out to start the 11th. He ended his day with 10 strikeouts, two hits and two runs allowed in five innings of work.
Players cannot apply a “foreign substance or moisture to the ball or to the pitching hand or fingers, or do anything to deface the ball” according to NCAA rules. Any college baseball coach has the right to initiate a foreign substance check on the opposing pitcher.
O’Sullivan found success in doing so earlier this season against Vanderbilt, when he initiated a check on Commodores pitcher JD Thompson. Umpires found an illegal substance on his forearm and he was ejected from the game as well as issues a four-game suspension.
The substance check wasn’t the only controversy that umpires were involved in Sunday. They also ejected Clemson first baseman Jack Crighton in the second inning and Bakich himself was ejected in the 13th inning.
Florida would go on to win 11-10 on a walk-off double from Michael Robertson.
“It’s just too bad. It’s unfortunate, because a lot of the really good officiators out there, they’re able to separate their personality and their personal emotion from being able to just officiate,” Bakich said. “I felt like there was some personality and personal emotion that got in there.
“And the best officials really do a good job at diffusing. I just didn’t see that.”
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