Bakich blasts umpire Angel Campos after controversial ejections |
Tony Crumpton
· · Thursday, June 26 2025
Umpire Angel Campos drew national attention for all the wrong reasons on Sunday when he ejected both Coastal Carolina head coach Kevin Schall and first base coach Matt Schilling in the first inning of the College World Series.
Obviously, that was too big of a game for an ump to have a quick hook with so much on the line for the Chanticleers. Bad officiating is tough to fix—unless people are willing to speak out. Clemson manager Erik Bakich fired back at umpire Angel Campos, who was also the same umpire who ejected Cam Cannarella in the extra-inning loss to Tennessee in the Clemson regional back in 2023. Angel Campos seems to have a problem. "The best umpires, the best officials, the best ones that are in charge of that, they’re really good at defusing situations," Bakich told Phil Kornblut in an interview recently. "And the worst ones are the ones that instigate and antagonize and look for conflict. When you have an Angel Campos and Billy Van Raaphorst. Guys that are on the side of looking for conflict, then conflict happens." Bakich understands that there are plenty of strong officials in the game, but the actions of a few can damage the credibility of the entire group. "Then you have some really good umpires. They’re professionals at diffusing a situation and they know how to manage a situation so that it doesn’t get to that point." For Bakich, what’s most frustrating is when the officiating overshadows the event. "It’s a shame that had to be a part of the narrative of that game. Not to take anything away from LSU, but that shouldn’t be part of the narrative of the College World Series national championship." LSU went on to beat Coastal Carolina 5-3, winning the national title. A quick breakdown of Coastal Carolina's Kevin Schnall getting ejected in the first inning of the CWS Final.
By “problem” I mean he is shamefully terrible at his job.
Here he is ejecting Clemson’s Cam Cannarella from a Regional in 2023 for… a VERY minor transgression. pic.twitter.com/hhYY08b7U3
The NCAA needs to fix it's officiating problem across all major sports. #MCWS pic.twitter.com/kSXMk0Qqww
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