A couple of college baseball managers got heated, and not necessarily over an umpire's call. Their fire was instead directed at each other.
More specifically, the incident took place between Stetson manager Steve Trimper and Austin Peay manager Roland Fanning after a 5-3 victory by Stetson. (Meanwhile, they're nicknamed the Governors but Austin Peay students often just chant "Let's Go Peay!")
Anyway, the exact reason for the confrontation has been left out. Though Outkick at least wrote about it, basing everything on the video circulating on social media.
"Stetson, as you can see, ended up winning a slobber knocker, which ended with a Strike 3 call that evidently pissed off the batter," wrote Zach Dean of Outkick. "According to the broadcast, the part you can't see in the above video is the Austin Peay coaches having to restrain the batter from the umpire.
"You can see Trimper look a little confused about the lack of a postgame handshake, which then turns into the two skippers nearly throwing fists at home plate."
Roland Fanning was ready to throw hands at the end of the Stetson-Austin Peay game because of who is actually ASUN regular season champs 👀👀👀
Governors' magical season has all but come to an end with loss pic.twitter.com/Uld9rqzD3X
— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) May 23, 2024
This is a less-than-ideal situation, as college coaches are expected to be the epitome of keeping their cool in the postgame handshake line. But hey, it sells tickets. We think.
Either way, at least one if not both could be facing a suspension from the Atlantic Sun conference in which their schools compete. And these two programs had more than your usual drama entering the game.
"Austin Peay thought they had won the ASUN regular season championship outright. They tweeted as much just last week," Dean wrote. "Except ... whoops! Turns out, the Govs may have jumped the gun, because, in reality, they were co-champs, along with Stetson."
Trimper, for his part, responded with a tweet of his own about that.
Whoops!!!! #premature. #jumpthegun https://t.co/FMxdDDP6bo
— Steve Trimper (@Steve_Trimper) May 18, 2024
So yeah, there was already plenty of reason for both sides to be on edge. Fortunately, these baseball bosses only went partially over the edge and not all the way there.
