There have been a ridiculous amount of unnecessary ejections due to home run celebrations in college baseball this season. However, Marshall's baseball team found a genius loophole to this problem: Have their stadium do the celebrating for them.
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In the sixth inning of Marshall's 10-2 win over Bellarmine University on Wednesday, Thundering Herd senior DH Owen Ayers crushed a hanging changeup over the right field fence for a solo home run.
After he rounded first base, the lights of Marshall's Jack Cook Field went dark, then produced an awesome lights display as Ayers continued rounding the bases.
Marshall Baseball showing off their insanely sick HR celebration lights pic.twitter.com/Du7I4Adyt2
— Barstool Baseball (@StoolBaseball) March 7, 2024
The strobe lights and ensuing siren home run celebration is something never before seen in college baseball, and represents a creative solution to the slew of grumpy umpires ejecting college players for bat flips.
In fact, a player on Marshall could probably get away with a behemoth bat flip after a home run at home — so long as he did so during the lights display.
While Marshalls' lights celebration was awesome, it would have been made even better if there was a stadium full of fans who got to witness it in person.
Yet, the pouring rain that the stadium experienced prior to first pitch made Jack Cook Field mostly empty, aside from some loyal parents and girlfriends.
Not to mention that this was a weekday game against a random, non-conference opponent for the Thundering Herd. As soon as Marshall starts facing conference foes during weekends once the weather gets warmer, their lights display will likely be seen by many more fans than those who witnessed Ayers' hit.
Heck, there will probably be people who show up to the stadium solely to see this sweet lights show.
It remains to be seen how many other college baseball programs have the funding and savvy to produce their own stadium-centric lights celebration — although we wouldn't be surprised to see unique celebrations like these popping up around the college game more often.
Or perhaps umpires could simply start to get a grip, and not eject players for showing some emotion.
