Texas A&M, Kentucky baseball coaches get into heated exchange at end of game

Texas A&M and Kentucky’s series finale ended early, and there was a heated exchange between the coaches about the circumstances of the game.

Kentucky was on a travel curfew, which meant that no new inning could be started after 4:30 p.m. CT in College Station. UK had a 10-5 lead in the bottom of the 8th inning as the deadline for a new inning approached. The Wildcats appeared to be well aware of the situation and looked to be actively killing time to make sure that the 8th would end after 4:30, concluding the ballgame.

As one would expect, Texas A&M coach Michael Earley was not amused by Kentucky’s handling of the situation. SEC Network cameras showed some shouting from the dugouts between Earley and UK skipper Nick Mingione. Kentucky recorded the third out, and picked up a 10-5 win in 8 innings.

Despite the intense exchange, everything went smoothly in the postgame handshake line.

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, Earley shared that he would have had an Aggie batter potentially strikeout on purpose if it meant getting a 9th inning to start before 4:30, giving Texas A&M 3 outs to try to rally.

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

The Wildcats improved to 17-9 overall and 4-5 in SEC play, picking up their first conference series win of the season. Texas A&M dropped to 13-14 overall and 1-8 in conference competition.

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.