STARKVILLE — Mississippi State University baseball coach John Cohen will serve an NCAA-mandated one-game suspension tonight after receiving a post-game ejection following Sunday’s series finale at Alabama.
When Alabama first baseman Austen Smith laced a hit off the left-centerfield wall to secure an 8-7 victory for the Crimson Tide, Cohen sprinted out to get nose-to-nose to each of the three umpires attempting to leave Sewell-Thomas Stadium. Cohen continued his verbal tirade of the umpires all the way into the MSU dugout until he turned to do his post-game radio interview with Bulldogs play-by-play voice Jim Ellis. It is unclear when exactly Cohen received the post-game ejection from an umpire. It marks Cohen’s first ejection since being tossed in the fourth inning of a 5-3 loss to the University of Iowa on March 5, 2011.
“There’s some other things that were going on in the game that didn’t have a lot to do with Mississippi State that were pretty frustrating when you’re watching the game on Maroon to the Max (the school’s internet broadcast provider),” Cohen said after that loss. “There was some stuff we just couldn’t control.”
He was also ejected in the second inning for arguing balls and strikes in an 11-10 home victory versus the University of Georgia on March 28, 2010.
The loss to Alabama Sunday left Cohen as angry as the fourth-year head coach has ever been this season. A controversial call on a chopper in front of home plate left Cohen, a Tuscaloosa, Ala., native, in the face of all three umpires when the foul call was made. MSU’s position was the ball was bounced in front of the plate making for it being a fair ball, which is why the Bulldogs coaching staff told relief pitcher Taylor Stark to throw the ball to first base in a pseudo appeal effort.
“When you go on the road in the SEC you have a lot of things working against you and certainly our kids did a great job of overcoming (those things),” Cohen said to the media Sunday. “There are things you can control in this game and things that you can’t. We ain’t backing down to anybody no matter what the conditions.”
It is unclear who will coach the Bulldogs in tonight’s 6:30 start against Mississippi Valley State at Dudy Noble Field.
Today’s suspension marks the third game Cohen will be forced to sit out. Cohen was suspended for one game three years ago and another game two years ago as a result of violating the Southeastern Conference Baseball Ejection Policy. The first suspension was served during Mississippi State’s game Saturday game at Vanderbilt on April 25, 2009.
The following suspension occurred after being ejected from a contest against the University of Tennessee on April 15, 2010.
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