'I Have a Job for These Boys': Rob Vaughn Explains Lineup Issue in Win Over Missouri

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— When a left fielder catches a fly ball in the first inning of a baseball game, it does not generally turn into a possible harbinger of doom for his team. When Missouri's Brock Daniels recorded an early putout in Friday's game, that's probably not what he expected.

Daniels, though he featured in the number six spot on head coach Kerrick Jackson's lineup card for game two between the Tigers and No. 18 Alabama Friday, was not on the program's 30-man roster of eligible players for this particular SEC weekend. Therein was the problem.

This discrepancy was brought to wider attention when he was about to have his first at-bat in the top of the second inning. During a short delay, Crimson Tide head coach Rob Vaughn addressed the issue with the umpiring crew. Simply put, Daniels couldn't play.

The difficult part of that equation was that he had participated already. In fact, he had not just meandered around in left field during the game's opening inning. He had tangibly contributed to an out that retired the side, directly affecting the competition.

When that happens, not that it is a common occurrence, possibilities are understandably an object of discussion. The specter of a big one looms, that big one being a forfeit. That is not what came to pass on Friday night. Instead, the visiting Tigers were charged with an out.

"We obviously get those 30-man rosters," Vaughn said. "Every time there's a new arm [to] come in, every time there's anybody new in the lineup, I always go check it. Every team does it a little bit differently. We ended up getting their lineup probably 10 minutes before the plate meeting."

Vaughn was not critical of the timing, chalking it up to the difference in teams he mentioned. He exchanged lineup cards with Jackson, as is the custom. Vaughn discovered Daniels' absence from the 30-man just prior to first pitch. Daniels was not in Thursday's lineup.

"Kerrick is one of my really good friends," Vaughn said. "It's just something, that, my job is to put our guys in the best position to win. When I saw it, I went and told our sport supervisor, and I'm like, 'Hey, I don't really know what to do in this situation'... I didn't know if it was a forfeit. I didn't know if it was an out."

The league office then advised Vaughn and his staff on the rules, which call for the automatic out. Tigers third baseman Chris Patterson had just notched his team's first extra-base hit of the series when Daniels was due up; in accordance with the conference's rule, Daniels was called out.

Patterson still made it to third base, but the second out caused by the administrative error loomed large, since he was eventually stranded 90 feet away from scoring the game's first run.

"Nobody wants a forfeit. Nobody does," Vaughn said. "We want to go play that game. We want to go win. We want to go win it on the field the right way. You don't want to win it on a technicality. So I'm kinda glad that it was an out... I hated to do it. Kerrick's my guy. I love that dude. But I have a job for these boys. That's my number one responsibility."

Alabama (34-10, 11-9 SEC) did win Friday's game on the field. 7-3, to be exact, in a contest featuring home runs from Kade Snell and Jason Torres. Missouri fell to 0-20 in SEC play and 13-29 overall. The Tigers lost Thursday's game 7-5, meaning the series has now been decided in advance of Saturday's 1 p.m. CT finale.

Missouri replaced Daniels with right fielder Pierre Seals and shifted Cayden Nicoletto, who started Thursday and Friday, over to left, where Daniels had been. Seals made the best of the peculiar circumstances with a two-hit game and an RBI.