Mark Kingston criticized umpiring after Game 1 loss vs. Florida

Florida and South Carolina met in Game 1 of the Gainesville Super Regional on Friday night, and the Gators walked away 5-4 winners. But not without a little controversy after Gamecocks coach Mark Kingston criticized the umpiring.

Following the game Kingston was immediately asked about a controversial decision the umpires made in the fifth inning that ruined a potential scoring opportunity for his team.

“Yeah, I’m shocked that was the first question,” Kingston said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “I’m shocked.”

The play in question occurred in the top of the fifth inning when South Carolina shortstop Braylen Wimmer reached first base on a throwing error from Florida pitcher Brandon Sproat. As Wimmer neared first base, he collided lightly with first baseman Jac Caglianone, stumbling.

The first base umpire appeared to signal something, and Wimmer seemed to take the signal as a call for interference, awarding him second base. So he very nonchalantly rounded the corner and headed to second, only to be tagged out and then ruled out by another umpire.

Officials then convened to review the play. Upon review, they called Wimmer out.

“As you saw by my persistence out there with the umpires I was not satisfied with the explanation,” Kingston said. “Their job is to make the calls, my job is to defend the team. And we didn’t necessarily agree on the outcome, but umpires are out there for a reason. They had their opinion and we had to go with it.”

From Wimmer’s end, after Kingston had criticized the umpiring some, the shortstop confirmed he thought he had been awarded second base.

“Yeah, obviously that’s why I was running in there, but he changed his mind,” Wimmer said. “They’ll make the calls.”

The call spoiled a potential scoring opportunity for South Carolina. Following the decision to rule Wimmer out, South Carolina had a passed ball, an Ethan Petry single and a Cole Messina walk; in all probability the Gamecocks would have scored a run had Wimmer been on second base.

Instead, the inning went down as a goose egg and Florida tied things up with a Tyler Shelnut solo home run in the bottom of the fifth.

Kingston further expanded on the ruling.

“Their opinion was that Braylen should not have been awarded second base, I obviously disagreed. But I don’t get to make the call,” he said. “They were talking about Obstruction A and Obstruction B and went into some things. Again, I disagreed, but I don’t get to make the call.”

To understand why Kingston criticized the umpiring it’s important to parse the two types of obstruction calls. The difference in the two obstruction rules is whether a play is blown dead immediately vs. allowed to play out and then decided.

In Obstruction A (Type 1), obstruction is committed by a fielder making a play on a runner. Umpires are supposed to immediately signal for obstruction and call time. It’s likely Wimmer mistook the umpire’s signal as an early indication of a Type 1 call.

In Obstruction B (Type 2), however, the call is made after the play plays out where there is obstruction on a runner while no play is being made on him. Because of the error, officials likely deemed the Wimmer play Type 2, thus why the obstruction was looked at on review.

Once officials determined there was no active play being made on Wimmer at first base (the contact with Caglianone was fairly light), the play would have been allowed to develop before officials made a ruling. But because the entire play was in the vicinity of the ball, it was a bit ambiguous as to the correct ruling.

Unfortunately for Wimmer, an unclear signal by the first base umpire ended up resulting in a costly out for the Gamecocks, which is why Kingston criticized the umpiring.

South Carolina will get a chance to avenge its Game 1 loss on Saturday when the two teams meet for the second game of the series at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2.