Texas A&M hosted the Kentucky Wildcats for a three-game college baseball series over the weekend. The teams split the first two games on Firday and Saturday, but headed into the rubber match on Sunday with something no one could control hanging over the contest.
Are you familiar with the SEC’s travel curfew?
When a Georgia – LSU game in 2014 ended after 13 innings the rule said that an inning couldn’t start after 3:45 p.m. if the visiting team is going home using a commercial flight. It’s now 4:30 p.m. CT and it came into play on Sunday in College Station.
With a 10-5 lead in the bottom of the 8th, Kentucky slowed down the pace of play as the clock ticked closer to that 4:30 deadline. With two outs there was suddenly a problem with the PitchCom. This set off A&M coach Michael Early who came out of the dugout to yell in the direction of the Kentucky dugout. Kentucky coach Nick Mingione could be seen yelling back.
Here’s the full situation and clip.
Kentucky & Texas A&M head coaches (Mingione & Earley) exchanged some heated words back and forth because Kentucky had what’s called a “travel curfew” (does happen sometimes but rare). No new inning could be started after 5:30/4:30 EST/CST. The… pic.twitter.com/Jvv00dm1tR— Harrison Cordell Fant (@Fantavious9) March 31, 2025
After the game Early revealed that he had told one of his players to strike out intentionally to try and end the inning.
I asked Texas A&M HC Michael Earley about potential strategy when facing a travel-curfew end of game situation:
“It’s like even embarrassing to talk about, but I told Royo if Kaeden got out, strikeout on purpose…”
Full answer below: pic.twitter.com/PisOScV36L
— Tony Catalina (@Tony_Catalina) March 30, 2025
According to the official box score, the game, which went only eight full innings, took three hours and 34 minutes to play and started at 1:02 p.m. That seems like an overall pace of play problem, but a little gamesmanship in the final minutes before the deadline is all anyone will remember.
