Jay Johnson ejected vs. Arkansas for arguing call in eighth inning

LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson was ejected in the eighth inning of a home game against Arkansas on Sunday. The ejection occurred after umpired called a walk on the previous play and Johnson left the dugout to argue the call.

The coach shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the home plate umpire to convey his disagreement with the call. He was almost immediately tossed from the game before coming out onto the field to speak with officials about the decision. You can view the moment below.

Ump Show at The Box 🙄

Jay Johnson gets run for pointing out Blue is bad at his job pic.twitter.com/DgYmdJZhQn

— Matt Moscona (@MattMoscona) May 11, 2025

“I told him he flinched, you know it and he ejected me,” Johnson said after the game. “Told me he had given the bench a warning. That’s it.”

LSU trailed 5-3 at the time of the ejection. The Tigers won the first two games of the series and were looking to become the first team to sweep Arkansas this season and just the third SEC team to do so since 2017.

Unfortunately, Johnson’s ejection didn’t seem to give the Tigers the edge they needed to complete the comeback. Although they would later get it within one run, they gave up two more runs in the top of the ninth and ended up losing by a score of 7-4.

LSU starting pitcher Casan Evans was charged with the loss as he allowed four runs on seven hits in 3.2 innings with three walks and four strikeouts. Reliever Chase Shores highlighted the effort of the Tigers’ bullpen, as he entered the game in the fourth inning and limited Arkansas to one run on two hits in 3.1 innings with one walk and four strikeouts, firing 60 pitches.

“Arkansas is really good with the arms they can run out there on a Sunday, but our guys did a pretty good job, too,” Johnson said. “There was tremendous value in today’s game in helping us determine a roadmap for winning in postseason play. Our guys fought and competed well today and all weekend against a very good team.”

LSU, which won the first two games of the weekend series over the Razorbacks, dropped to 40-12 overall and 17-10 in conference play. The Tigers return to action at 6 p.m. CT on Thursday when they open a three-game SEC series at South Carolina. That will mark the final series of the regular season before SEC Tournament play opens up on May 20.