OMAHA, Neb. – None of the 24,734 in attendance at Charles Schwab Field quite knew what was happening in the bottom of the first inning of game two of the 2025 Men’s College World Series finals when Coastal Carolina head coach Kevin Schnall was given the heave-ho by home plate umpire Angel Campos.
Campos, apparently, heard something from the Coastal Carolina dugout and issued a warning for arguing balls and strikes, which got Schnall out of the dugout to figure out what the warning was for. When Campos shooed him away, the fireworks started.
“I’m 48 years old. I shouldn’t get shooed by another grown man. When I walk out to find out what the warning is, a grown man shooed me,” Schnall said. “At that point I can now hear him say, ‘It was a warning issued for arguing balls and strikes.’ At that point I said, ‘Because you missed three.’ At that point, ejected. If that warrants an ejection, I’m the first one to stand here like a man and apologize.”
Schnall then came out of the dugout to get his money’s worth, and first base coach Matt Schilling came to the plate to do the same, an umpire tripped and fell backwards on his rump in front of 25,000 people, and suddenly Schnall and Schilling were gone.
No “bump” from Schnall as he was accused of on the field, in fact you see an umpire extend his arm toward his own crew member as if he was pushing him out of the way while stumbling
Of note: the NCAA has already changed their language in their official statement. Took all of 1… pic.twitter.com/SBW45p8Lc8
— Quentin Mills (@Qmilllyy) June 22, 2025
For its part, the NCAA issued a statement citing the rules violated and why the ejections were proper, given the circumstances.
Official statement from the NCAA pic.twitter.com/CRVjyEBraO
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) June 22, 2025
Late Sunday evening, Coastal Carolina issued a statement, saying, “The ejections of Kevin Schnall and Matt Schilling in the bottom of the first inning drastically altered the trajectory of a must-win game for our team. These decisions were made with an alarming level of haste, without an attempt at de-escalation, and deprive our student-athletes of the leadership they have relied on throughout the postseason.”
Proud of @CoastalBaseball. The 2025 season is one TEAL NATION will remember 4 a long time. Congrats to LSU, a great team that earned this championship.
However, on the game’s highest stage our coaches should have been there throughout, but that opportunity was taken from them pic.twitter.com/pQ9pgk5kab
— Chance Miller (@cmiller05) June 23, 2025
You can’t argue balls and strikes from the dugout, so Campos’ warning was proper. Schnall deserved an explanation of the warning, and Campos should have given him a better explanation and shouldn’t have dismissed him. After all, Campos did work 585 games over seven seasons in the Major Leagues, so it’s not like he’s new at this. He’s been heavily criticized before, rated, evaluated, and dealt with plenty of angry managers and coaches. He’s one of the best umpires out there, regardless of what everyone thinks of him right now, and had a bad moment yesterday when he pulled the trigger too quickly on Schnall.
This is one of those situations where everyone is right and wrong at the same time, and unfortunately, perhaps the game did turn on Schnall being sent to the clubhouse early, and his team ended up losing 5-3 to LSU in their final game of the year.
For his part, Schnall lived up to the values he professes to his players and about his program.
“Two words that define our program are ‘own it.’ And what does that mean? It means you have to own everything that you do without blame, without defending yourself, without excuses,” Schnall said.
“If you guys watch the video, there was a guy that came in extremely aggressively, tripped over Campos’ foot, embarrassed in front of 25,000, immediately goes two games suspension and said, bumping the umpire. Immediately does that. There was no bump. He was embarrassed. I shouldn’t be held accountable for a grown man’s athleticism, he continued. “They’ll retract it, though, because now it’s excessive and the reason it was excessive because I was trying to say, I didn’t bump him.”
Schnall is, in a word, intense. He’s a competitor, he’s relentless, he’s an old-school baseball coach. But his personality did him no favors when he worked the umpires yesterday, and his team had to pay the price for it.
Schnall admitted as such, and while his ejection may not have set a great example for coaches and players who look to top college coaches for inspiration, his statement after the game taking responsibility was something every coach should take notice of.
Who Do You Want To Play For? – In an era of college sports where winning is paramount and the money seems to get bigger every day, Murray State head coach Dan Skirka is a breath of fresh air.
Skirka, 40, is the humble leader of the team no one expected to be in Omaha. As I wrote earlier, Skirka and the Racers got to Omaha because of their team culture. A program’s culture starts with the coach, and while nowadays a college coach — in any sport — does a lot of things, from recruiting to administration to game management to technical coaching — they’re teachers first and foremost.
