Sports

Virginia Baseball Players Will Miss Elimination Game After ‘Ump Show’ Nearly Ended Season

by Last Updated

iStockphoto / Amber Searls-Imagn Images


The Virginia baseball team survived a thrilling extra inning elimination game against Southern Miss on Saturday. The win kept the Cavaliers’ season alive.

With that being said, they’ll be forced to play their next game without two key players. John Paone and Kyle Johnson will serve a one-game suspension after being ejected.

Emotions got the best of both players. They watched the end of the game from the clubhouse as a result. Were they warranted? Most viewers don’t believe so.

Virginia baseball players were tossed.

In the seventh frame, pitcher John Paone was ejected for taunting an opponent after a strikeout. He shouted something in the direction of the batter. He was thrown out before he got back to the dugout.

The ejection would prove costly in more ways than one.

Virginia was leading the baseball game 11-8 at the time. Replacement pitchers quickly surrendered three runs the next inning to allow the Golden Eagles to force extras.

Many believed the ejection was excessive. A warning could’ve just as easily eased tensions. The quick trigger was unnecessary.

Luckily for the Cavaliers, it wouldn’t cost them the victory.

UVA won in extras.

With two on and two out in the top of the 10th inning, Zach Jackson belted a two-run single to give his team a 13-11 lead. Teammate Kyle Johnson would then homer to push the advantage to 15-11.

Johnson’s bomb put an exclamation point in the win. Virginia would close the game out in the bottom of the 10th to end the Golden Eagles’ season.

The Cavaliers’ hero will be unable to play in his next game. Johnson, too, was ejected after rounding the bases. Again, the trigger seemed quick. Johnson’s celebration seemed far less egregious than Paone’s.

“Ejecting a player for this post home run celebration is INSANE,” one follower wrote on social media.

“We can’t even celebrate extra-inning dead-center dingers anymore?” another asked. “I thought this was playoff baseball.”

The game was emotional. It was a back-and-forth affair with each team’s season on the line. The ejections, particularly Johnson’s, seemed extreme.

Head coach Chris Pollard opened up on the suspensions after the game.

Pollard did not shift blame to the umpires. They were simply trying to keep the situation from developing into something bigger.

Unfortunately, that forces Virginia to play its next baseball game without shorthanded.