Ask UEFL - NCAA Ejection in Tennessee's Super Regional

After umpires ejected Volunteers center fielder Drew Gilbert and assistant (pitching) coach Frank Anderson during Game 1 of the Notre Dame-Tennessee NCAA Super Regional on Friday, we received several requests to analyze the disciplinary sequence, which at the end of the day is fairly straightforward.

Rarely at the Major League Baseball level are we privy to post-game umpire statements, but for this game, Crew Chief Van Rapphorst released the following to Knoxville News Sentinal's Mike Wilson:

"Tennessee #1 Drew Gilbert argued several pitches during the top of the second inning, steaming in from centerfield. To begin the next inning I talked to the player between innings, warning him to direct his comments only to his team, not our crew or the other team. He said O.K. and that he just gets excited.

"During the fifth inning following strike one, Tennessee batter Gilbert yelled an expletive, followed by another expletive as he walked out of the box and was subsequently ejected."

The aforementioned statement established a key fact: that ejectee Gilbert had previously been warned about unsporting comments in the first third of the game, meaning that his 5th inning ejection was not the first offense. Technically, by leaving the batter's box to confront HP Umpire Kellen Levy, the crew could have called Gilbert for violating NCAA's Batter's-Box Rule 7-1-d, the penalty for which is an automatic strike.

As for pitching coach Anderson, the NCAA rules book recognizes two classes of coaches: head coaches (of which there is only one per team) and assistants. Thus, assistant coach Anderson by rule was not authorized to come onto the playing surface to dispute...well...anything, and was ejected by 2B Umpire and Crew Chief Van Rapphorst.

Second, it confirms that Gilbert used profanity directed at HP Umpire Levy, which NCAA treats much more strictly than professional baseball, as it does with suspensions as well, imposing a mandatory one-game suspension for Gilbert and a mandatory three-game suspension for Anderson, since Anderson previously served a one-game suspension during the 2022 season for another ejection (the NCAA rules book calls for progressive discipline for subsequent ejections).

Video as follows:

Alternate Link: Gilbert discovers that cursing at another human being is a bad idea (ESPN)