‘Big fan': Braves legend Chipper Jones lauds Coastal Carolina baseball coach
The Coastal Carolina University baseball team, and its current run toward the College World Series, has caught the eye of an Atlanta Braves legend.
Chipper Jones, the switch-hitting third baseman who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018, praised the team and its coach Tuesday in a social media post that was critical of other teams vying for playoff spots.
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'Spent quite a bit of time watching college baseball this weekend,' Jones wrote on X.com. 'I will only watch a select few teams from here on out. Reason? They have coaches that respect the game and their opponents and demand the same of their players. Any team that doesn't wear the uni correctly, taunts the other team, and has a coach that condones this behavior, is a disgrace to the game.
'Big fan of coach Schnall at Coastal Carolina! Him and his team represent what college baseball should be like. Well done, sir! U stand for proper behavior.'
Kevin Schnall, in his first year as CCU head coach, made headlines this week criticizing the actions of University of Florida baseball coach Kevin O'Sullivan, who was caught on video berating staff at the NCAA Regionals in Conway this past weekend.
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'I have to say this, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to or not, but I believe in standing up to for what's right, and what transpired this morning on our field, another coach disrespected our associate AD, who works as hard as anybody in our entire program, he disrespected our field crew, who are the salt of the earth, these guys would do anything for our program, it's not okay,' Schnall said. 'And this needs to be brought up. Absolutely disrespectful.'
O'Sullivan has since issued a statement apologizing for his behavior.
CCU advanced out of the region that included Florida, East Carolina University and Fairfield University. They will play Auburn University beginning Friday in a best-of-three series to determine which team advances to the College World Series.
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