Tensions flared during Saturday’s NCAA baseball game between Samford and Mercer.

Samford outfielder Michael Gupton hit a two-run homer to increase the Bulldogs’ lead over the Mercer Bears. Gupton appeared to shout something at Mercer players during his spirited jog around the bases. 

Gupton’s words seemed to target at least one player on the baseball diamond as well as the Mercer dugout. Gupton eventually touched home plate and celebrated with his Samford teammates.

A visibly frustrated Mercer shortstop, Bradley Frye, attempted to follow Gupton and had to be held back by umpires. Mercer coaches also voiced their frustrations to the umpires.

TWO OLE MISS OUTFIELDERS COLLIDE IN SCARY MOMENT DURING SEC BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

Mercer players then began leave the playing field in apparent protest.

Several Mercer players had to be held back in the dugout.

(Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Southern Conference commissioner Michael Cross was in attendance for the game and was eventually seen talking with the umpires.

Gupton and Frye were ejected from the game after a video review. Coaches were also thrown out, with Samford assistant Gil Walkes and Mercer pitching coach Tanner Gordon receiving ejections.

(Peter Aiken/Getty Images)

Frye’s mother was also shown the door after she was seen standing and jumping on top of the dugout moments after she learned of her son’s ejection. Other Mercer fans were tossed out after they went onto the dugout roof.

The game was delayed for approximately 25 minutes.

Samford ultimately celebrated a 5-1 victory on Saturday. The win punched Samford’s ticket to the SoCon championship game. 

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NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani provided the Dodgers some temporary reprieve on Sunday.

Before the game, he faced hitters for the first time since undergoing Tommy John revision surgery in 2023, drawing a large crowd in the visitor’s dugout at Citi Field as he touched 97 mph with his fastball and struck out two batters in five at-bats.

Four and a half hours later, the two-way star dazzled with his bat, as well, belting a second-deck leadoff blast in the first inning to tie the major league lead with 18 home runs on the season.

Alas, there was little else for the Dodgers to celebrate in a 3-1 rubber-match loss to the New York Mets.

They were doomed by bad defense early, the Mets scoring three early runs with the help of two Dodgers errors. They were frustrated by wasted opportunities at the plate later, hitting into three double plays for a second consecutive night.

It sent the team to a series defeat in the weekend’s rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series. It also dropped them to 3-6 in their last nine games and 9-11 in their last 20.

Really, outside of their 8-0 start to the season, they’ve been little better than a .500 team, going just 24-21 since then (even with another seven-game winning streak mixed in to that stretch).

And while they’re still in first place in the NL West, and trailing only the Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees for the best record in baseball, they aren’t playing like a team anywhere near that distinction.

On Sunday, examples of why were present throughout.

After Ohtani’s leadoff homer, the Dodgers (32-21) had the chance to add on more. Mookie Betts reached on an error. Freddie Freeman moved him to third with a double. When Will Smith followed with a fly ball to center field, it was deep enough for Betts to break for home. At least, that’s how it seemed.

Instead, Mets center fielder Tyrone Taylor delivered a strike to the plate. And after Betts was initially ruled safe on a feet-first slide, a Mets challenge got the call overturned. A chance to build some early breathing room for starting pitcher Landon Knack had disappeared. And in the bottom half of the frame, the Mets immediately jumped in front.

With two out, Juan Soto hit a sharp grounder to third that Max Muncy bobbled, recovering too late to throw Soto out at first. It was Muncy’s eighth error of the season, second-most among MLB third basemen, and first not to come on a throw.

One pitch later, Pete Alonso made it hurt, whacking a hanging curveball to left for a two-run home run.

The Mets (32-21) scored their only other run against Knack — who delivered just the 14th six-inning start of the season for the club — in the third. With one on and one out, Mark Vientos hit a hard grounder up the middle that Betts impressively got to from shortstop. But then Betts misfired on a flip to second base, sailing the ball over teammate Tommy Edman’s head to put runners on the corners. A fielder’s choice from Soto in the next at-bat scored a run.

The 3-1 deficit proved too much for the Dodgers to surmount.

In the fourth inning, Freeman hit a leadoff single … only for Will Smith to promptly ground into a double play.

Later in the inning, Teoscar Hernández doubled and Max Muncy walked to put two aboard … only for Andy Pages to hit a deep fly ball that died at the warning track in left.

In the fifth, the Dodgers generated their best chance against Mets ace Kodai Senga … only for the Japanese right-hander to induce a two-out grounder from Smith that ended the threat.

In the sixth, Muncy drew a one-out walk … only for Pages to roll into another double play, the 42nd for the Dodgers this season (fifth-most in the majors).

Knack’s strong start (he was charged with just one earned run in six innings while striking out five) and a sturdy showing from the bullpen (Jack Dreyer and Lou Trivino each pitched scoreless frames) kept the Dodgers close. But over the final three innings, their lineup recorded just a lone ninth-inning single from Muncy, ending a day that had begun with so much optimism around Ohtani’s two-way talents with a dud of a performance and frustrating series loss.

After a controversial no-call during a play involving Caitlin Clark Saturday, Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White lambasted WNBA referees for their officiating in Fever games this season. 

In a rant after the Fever’s 90-88 loss to the New York Liberty, White called the officiating “egregious.” 

New York’s Natasha Cloud made contact with Clark during the game’s final possession, but referees did not blow the whistle. 

“I thought she got fouled. I think it’s pretty egregious what’s been happening to us the last few games,” White said of Clark. “The disrespect right now for our team has been pretty unbelievable. So, it’s disappointing, you know, that it doens’t go both ways, or it hasn’t gone both ways.” 

White also acknowledged the league has a system in place for teams to communicate disagreements with referee decisions but questioned whether the system works. 

“There’s a system to making sure that we can send stuff in and communicate our grievances, so to speak. I don’t know if I have a feeling that the system works,” she said. 

INSIDE CAITLIN CLARK AND ANGEL REESE’S IMPACT ON MEN’S BASKETBALL

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark reacts to officiating Saturday, May 24, 2025, during a game against the New York Liberty at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Liberty won, 90-88. (Grace Smith/IndyStar/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

Clark declined to give her opinion on the referee’s call on the final play. 

“I don’t know. I have to go back and watch,” Clark said of the call. 

During the game, Clark immediately looked to the officials for a foul and quickly began to shout at them when she realized no foul call was forthcoming. Her teammate, Sophie Cunningham, also approached the refs to protest the lack of a whistle. 

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) with head coach Stephanie White during the third quarter against the Brazil National Team at Carver-Haweye Arena.  (Jeffrey Becker/Imagn Images)

A replay showed Cloud pushing her shoulder into Clark’s the moment the ball came loose. But the referees did not blow the whistle, and the game ended there. 

The Fever fell to 2-2 on the season and have been on the wrong end of a number of controversial decisions by officials in their first four games of the season. 

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