UVA baseball coach Brian O’Connor to serve four-game suspension

UVA head baseball coach Brian O’Connor has been suspended for four games following his ejection in the eighth inning Friday at Virginia Tech.

After making unintentional contact with home-plate umpire Craig Barron, O’Connor is required to serve a four-game suspension, which is mandated by NCAA Baseball Playing Rule 5, section 16-b. The rule dictates that if a coach is ejected for making physical contact with an umpire, the automatic first offense penalty is a four-game suspension. O’Connor will miss UVa’s Saturday and Sunday games at Virginia Tech, the Tuesday home game against Towson and the Friday home game against Florida State. Associate head coach Kevin McMullan will serve as UVa’s acting head coach in O’Connor’s absence.

“I want to apologize for my actions during Friday’s game,” O’Connor said. “I understand this calls for an automatic four-game suspension and I accept the consequences of my actions. I know the rule and had no intent to touch the umpire during our interaction. As the head coach, I have worked hard to set a high standard when it comes to sportsmanship and I did not do that during the game. All I can do is work to be a better coach and example to our players moving forward. Again, I want to apologize to the umpiring crew, my team and our fans for this inappropriate display.”

Virginia will have no further comment regarding the suspension.