SEC announces suspensions after bench-clearing dust up in Saturday's Georgia-Mississippi State game
After a collision at home plate in the Georgia–Mississippi State baseball game on Saturday night, the benches cleared, and in total 11 players were ejected. Now, the SEC has announced its decision to suspend multiple players following the incident.
In total, five players are going to be suspended following the incident. That includes two Mississippi State players, Johnny Long and Logan Kohler. Meanwhile, Henry Hunter, Fernando Gonzalez, and Daniel Padysak have all been suspended by the SEC. All of the suspensions are for one game.
When players are ejected in college, they’re subject to a suspension. So, the SEC did decide that six of the players who were ejected should not have any suspension due to the bench clearing incident. During the game, players were largely ejected for leaving their dugouts.
Zac Selmon, director of athletics at Mississippi State, shared on social media that two Mississippi State players will be suspended for their next game. He was also critical of the process during the game.
“The process and outcome of last night’s 8th inning in our game against Georgia, was absurd, ridiculous and embarrassing on so many levels. I understand why so many are outraged, as am I,” Selmon wrote. “After hours of thorough dialogue and facts presented, our entire roster will be available to play today with the exception of #18 and #40,” Selmon wrote.
“We will always fight for our players, for our fans and for Mississippi State. This is no exception. We will continue to seek answers and explanations as to why this was handled in the manner it was during the game.”
It was the top of the eighth inning in a tie game when Georgia hit the ball to the gap and Dillon Carter tried to score from first on the play. The throw beat him and he ended up colliding with the Mississippi State catcher, Johnny Long, who took issue with that. Long stood over him, appeared to say something, and put his knee in Carter’s ribs.
At that point, the umpire pulled Long away but tensions already boiled over and the benches cleared.
That was the final out of the eighth inning and it occurred at 10:29 p.m. The game would not end up resuming until 11:09 p.m. or 40 minutes later. In the meantime, umpires were figuring out both what to do on the play and who left their dugouts. In total, there’d be 11 ejections.
Georgia went on to challenge the play for “malicious contact” but the SEC league office in Birmingham ruled that there wasn’t any.
There wasn’t a complete list of players ejected that was made available. However, according to Anthony Dasher, Johnny Long, Logan Kohler, Dakota Jordan, Hunter Hines, and Amani Larry did not return to the field for Mississippi State. For Georgia, Fernando Gonzalez, Slate Alford, and Tre Phelps didn’t return to the field either.
Dasher also noted that all of the mayhem led to Georgia reliever Josh Roberge playing in the outfield. Meanwhile, pitcher Brian Zeldin had to bat.
Georgia ended up coming out on top and beating Mississippi State 3-2. With that, Georgia evened up the series at a game apiece. The two teams are going to meet again on Sunday afternoon to decide who wins the series.
These suspensions come at a key part of the season for both teams, as SEC play is in full swing. Both teams are also fighting in the highly competitive SEC to put themselves in the best position possible. For now, Georgia is 5-6 in conference play and is fifth in the SEC East. Mississippi State, meanwhile, is third in the SEC West with their own 5-6 record in conference play.
Following this series, the two teams aren’t scheduled to play again during the regular season. However, they could still meet in the postseason.