Missouri State baseball players share gross photos of hotel conditions during NCAA Tournament trip

Members of the Missouri State baseball team cheered when they heard they were headed to the Stillwater, Oklahoma Regional in the NCAA Baseball Tournament.

But after they checked into their hotel rooms on Wednesday night for the tournament, those cheers quickly went away.

Players on the Missouri State baseball team shared on social media Wednesday night the photos of the hotel they were staying in during the Stillwater Regional.

It's pretty gross.

Relief pitcher Trey Ziegenbein posted a thread on his Twitter account while tagging the NCAA noting: "Here's a thread of the disgusting conditions of the hotel you put us in for our 2022 baseball regional in Stillwater, Oklahoma."

Photos in Ziegenbein's thread included "mysterious undergarments," stains on mattresses, a video of possible bed bugs, fake eyelashes on the carpet and hair on pillows.

Players deleted their tweets about the hotel on Thursday afternoon. Photos of the hotel conditions were reshared by D1Baseball podcast host Stephen Schoch on Wednesday night.

Did they get a new hotel?

There was a somewhat-happy ending to this story as players posted photos of them leaving the Microtel By Wyndham around 12:30 a.m. to walk to their new hotel.

After many players retweeted Ziegenbein's thread, fellow relief pitcher Riyan Rodriguez posted a photo of the hotel saying that "goodbyes are never easy... thanks for the memories."

A player on the Bears told the News-Leader that half of the team moved to the hotel next door where the Grand Canyon baseball team was staying. The other half had to stay at the Microtel By Wyndham due to the lack of available rooms.

Missouri State play-by-play voice Art Hains tweeted Wednesday afternoon that the Bears were moving out of the Stillwater hotel and into one in Ponca City which is located just over 40 miles north of Stillwater.

According to the 2021-22 NCAA Division I Baseball Host Operations Manual, the tournament manager is responsible for making housing arrangements for each team and all hotels should be of equal quality. It notes that the visiting teams are responsible for confirming the final arrangements.

Microtel issues statement

Microtel by Wyndham responded in a statement, which was confirmed by the News-Leader on Tuesday, saying that Missouri State broke into "out of order" rooms that were undergoing renovations."

"They entered hotel rooms that they had no permission to enter, without knowing if another guest was inside," the hotel said in a statement. "They then took photos of the substandard conditions in those rooms (which is why they were temporarily decommissioned), and posted the photos on social media portraying those rooms as the ones that they were provided for their stay."

The hotel said it has reached out to Missouri State and said it was unresponsive to its communications.

"The Stillwater Microtel is a professionally managed hotel, and has consistently improved its physical condition and guest services over the years," the statement said. "To have their hard work and effort misrepresented is an affront to our sincere and experienced employees. We hope they assume responsibility and ensure that their athletes have the opportunity to learn from the unfortunate choices they made this weekend."

The News-Leader reached out to Missouri State on Tuesday and is awaiting a response.

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State baseball has gross hotel conditions at NCAA Tournament