Georgia was struggling against Liberty's starting pitcher Cooper Harrington, collecting only one hit for the first five innings during the Athens Regional final on Sunday.

Their third baseman, Tre Phelps, entered the game hitting just .167 (1-for-6) over the whole regional tournament. So when he crushed a two-run go-ahead home run off Harrington to put Georgia up 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth, he couldn't hold his emotion.

Immediately after hitting the home run, he turned toward the first-base line, pointing his hands and speaking words in the direction of the Liberty team's dugout while crossing the basepath. The home plate umpire didn't like the gesture. He stepped in and officially ejected Phelps from the contest.

Georgia head coach Wes Johnson rushed onto the field to defend his player. But after a heated argument with the umpiring crew, the SEC Coach of the Year was also ejected from the field.

Despite losing both their starting third baseman and their head coach, the Bulldogs won the game 6-1.

Phelps' replacement, Michael O'Shaughnessy, also hit a solo home run over the right-field wall in the bottom of the eighth.

Fans Side With the Ejected Player; Coach Said Phelps was 'Waving at His Family'

A lot of people felt the punishment was too harsh.

“He didn’t do anything, just a kid playing ball,” one fan said. 

“You wanna alienate potential younger fans of the game? Do exactly this. You have to allow SOME emotion and trash talk in the game,” added another fan, noting how long Phelps had waited for that hit.

"The entirety of college baseball needs to CHILL THE F*** OUT," another added.

Just hours earlier, Arizona State outfielder Landon Hairston was also ejected from the Sun Devils’ 11–8 win over Nebraska on the same day. He was ejected for throwing his bat in the air after a third strike call.

"Depends on what he said while doing it but I didn’t think that was that bad," a fan commented.

"Unsportsmanlike or just cinematic timing? either way i'm here for the drama," said another.

Coach Wes Johnson said after the game, Phelps was just interacting with his parents, who were seated in the stands directly above Liberty's bench.

“For the record, Tre’s family was sitting up in the stands,” Johnson said. “Tre was waving at his family. The umpires, whatever, I’m not an umpire. They thought he was talking to the dugout.”

Liberty coach Bradley LeCroy, however, had an entirely different perspective.

“I don’t have anything to do with the ejection, but I’m going to protect our guys 100%... He made remarks to our dugout and looked straight at our dugout,” LeCroy said.

When asked if Phelps might have actually just been waving at his family, LeCroy distanced himself from the decision.

"Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. And if they were, like, hey, I wasn’t the one who ejected him, right?" he said.

"If his family was above our dugout, great. They can go review it. The umpires can write a report. I’m not going to take the blame for him getting ejected.”

Phelps will miss Game 1 of the Athens Super Regional, and the call cannot be appealed.  Johnson himself, though, didn't face any further penalty.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Md Saife Fida

Edited by

Shubhi Rathore