Shameful Ump Show ejects Coastal Carolina coach Kevin Schnall from CWS final

No matter what the sport, you always want to see championships decided by the players making plays on the field. Umpires and referees have an awfully tough job, of course; but in general, you'd hope they would err on the side of letting things slide while trying to call the game as fairly as possible — especially with a title on the line.

Apparently Angel Campos missed that memo. Game 2 of the men's College World Series final had barely gotten underway on Sunday afternoon when Campos managed to run both Coastal Carolina head coach Kevin Schnall and his first-base coach, Matt Schilling. What's worse, it seemed like he was going out of his way to do so.

After a questionable strike call against the Chants in the bottom of the first inning, Schilling had something to say; only a few seconds later, he'd been ejected. Then Schnall came out of the dugout and told Campos he'd "missed three pitches" — hardly the most colofrul thing a manager has ever said to an ump — and that was enough to get him tossed.

Was Schnall technically showing Campos up by coming out of the dugout? Sure, technically. Are you not allowed to argue balls and strikes? Absolutely. But still: Come on. There's a national championship on the line on Sunday afternoon, and Campos injected himself at the worst possible time.

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There's no excuse to eject a manager in the College World Series final unless you absolutely have to

Being an umpire is a thankless job; you take a torrent of abuse from both sides, and no one thanks you when it's over. But part of that job is being big enough to turn the other cheek when warranted. Schnall was clearly frustrated, and considering the stakes and the moment in the game, it's Campos' responsibility to let him air out that frustration without doing something he can't take back — and which could help decide a championship.

Of course, there comes a point at which Campos' hand would have been forced. If Schnall had kept it up for minutes, or had come all the way out of the dugout and gotten in the umpire's face, there's not much Campos could do to avoid taking action. But you have to be able to let a head coach get things off his chest in a heated moment. Plus, how quickly he ran Schilling at first base suggests that he had an itchy trigger finger, which is inexcusable in this spot.

To make matters worse, CWS rules state that Schnall will now be ineligible to coach in Game 3 if the Chants make it that far. All because Campos couldn't stand having his feelings hurt for a few seconds on national television.

Baseball fans, media flame Angel Campos for embarrassing Ump Show at College World Series

To no one's surprise, everyone around the sport was up in arms about what transpired. Again, this isn't about rooting for LSU or Coastal; this is about letting games, but especially games on the biggest stage with everything on the line, be decided by the players themselves. No one wants to see a team at anything less than full strength when playing for a championship, especially for something that falls pretty clearly within the bounds of typical baseball behavior.