Indiana's Starting Second Baseman Suspended For Regional Final After Getting Ejected Over Ridiculous Anti-Fun Rule

When Indiana takes the field for the Regional final on Sunday night, Tyler Cerny will not be on the field. The Hoosiers' starting second baseman is suspended over a rule that doesn't need to exist.

Indiana entered the weekend as the No. 3 seed in the Lexington, Kentucky, regional. A 12-run win over two-seed West Virginia on Friday put it into the winner's side of the bracket and set it up for a meeting with Kentucky on Saturday.

The Hoosiers proceeded to beat the Wildcats and advanced to the Regional final.

Indiana will play next Sunday at 6 p.m. EST in a rematch against Kentucky, which beat West Virginia in the loser's bracket on Sunday afternoon. The latter has to beat the former twice to advance to the Super Regionals. The former has to beat the latter once to advance.

However, the Hoosiers will be down one player. Cerny is suspended one game for his antics Saturday.

It all started when catcher Peter Serruto hit a crucial three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning. The dinger gave Indiana a lead that it would never give back and the dugout went bonkers.

Amidst the celebration, Cerny broke a rule.

Indiana will now play without him.

The NCAA Baseball Rules Committee made a severe overcorrection during the offseason in response to an increase of home run props last season. It decided to make it so that props, of any type, cannot be used outside of the dugout.

If a player brings a prop outside of the dugout, he will be ejected from the contest and suspended for the next game. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich was the culprit for East Carolina last month.

A home run medallion and chain was the culprit Saturday.

Serruto hit the home run for the Hoosiers and Cerny brought the home run necklace out onto the field to don his catcher with the prop. That's not allowed.

Tyler Cerny was tossed.

Not only did Cerny miss the rest of Saturday's game, he will also miss Sunday. Because he was ejected, he is suspended.

Cerny technically broke the rules. This isn't on the umpires. Unfortunately, they got it right.

However, there is no reason to have this rule in the first place. Props weren't a problem before. Props are not a problem now.

And yet, Cerny will miss a game that could propel his team to the Super Regionals. Lame.