Ole Miss finally got one back on Arkansas during the quarterfinal round of the SEC college baseball tournament. The Razorbacks were served a heavy dose of karma after they celebrated one of their accomplishments as a program with a distasteful post on social media.
It was an awkward sequence of events that likely could’ve and should’ve been handled differently.
Arkansas earned the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament by finishing the college baseball regular season at 43-12. Their conference record guaranteed an automatic bye to the quarterfinal round. On the other side of this latest rivalry matchup, Ole Miss played its way through the bracket to reach the quarterfinal as the No. 7 seed. They met in Hoover on Friday evening.
The Hogs committed at least three costly fielding mistakes in the top of the first inning and could not get out of their own way. The Rebels jumped out to a 5-0 lead on a three-run moonshot from Austin Fawley.
Arkansas tried to claw its way back during the bottom of the second, which leads us to the controversial post on social media. Sophomore infielder Cam Kozeal knocked the eighth pitch of his at-bat to deep right-centerfield. Ole Miss outfielders Isaac Humphrey and Ryan Moerman both tried to make a play on the ball but neither guy called the other off. Or if they did, the call off fell on deaf ears.
Humphrey and Moerman ran directly into each other. The violent collision sent hats, sunglasses and gloves flying. It was a full-blown yard sale.
Humphrey laid motionless on the field as the game continued. The Rebels tried to rally but Kozeal ultimately scored a run on the unconventional inside-the-park home run.
Here is where things get super awkward, for a lack of better word.
The Razorbacks posted a lengthy clip of the play to X with the caption: “Well, it goes down as an inside-the-park home run but we just hope everyone’s ok.” Fortunately, all things considered, everyone was relatively okay.
I understand the need for Arkansas to post an update of the score from an important game— even if it was due to unfortunate circumstances. For the team to post a clip of big plays on social media is standard procedure. However, the video that was posted stayed on the motionless player for way too long and the caption did not reflect the intended compassion.
To make matters worse, Kozeal’s home run just so happened to break the record for most home runs in a single season in program history. The Razorbacks had a graphic prepared.
The graphic is one thing. Unfortunately, the team chose to use a caption that completely missed the mark. It read: “Honestly this is sorta awkward.” Awkward, indeed. Classless too!
Ole Miss went on to win 5-2. Arkansas got a taste of karma.