A fired college baseball coach allegedly hijacked Twitter accounts and started a social media war with the school after he got the axe ... and now, the university is suing the guy over it.
Here's the deal ... Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Ill. says in a new lawsuit, obtained by TMZ Sports, it hired Rocco Mossuto to coach its baseball team back in 2014.
The problem ... the university says after officials canned the guy in 2020 -- he hoarded all of the team's Twitter account passwords and refused to give them back to the school for WEEKS.
In fact, the university claims during that time period ... Mossuto tweeted out a bunch of inflammatory things about the school from the official accounts -- blasting the sports programs on multiple occasions.
Eventually, the school says Mossuto returned the accounts ... but claims the drama didn't end there.
In the lawsuit, SXU says Mossuto created more accounts that were almost identical to the university's official ones -- with similar bios, pictures of the team mascot, and handle names -- and they say it was all an effort by the ex-coach to disparage the school.
Now, SXU is suing Mossuto for trademark infringement and conversion ... and is asking for unspecified damages.
Multiple attempts to reach Mossuto for comment were unsuccessful.
Mossuto had found some success coaching the Cougars before his termination this year ... his team won the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament in 2016 and was runner-up at the same event the following year.
Mossuto now manages the Southland Vikings -- a summer baseball team that plays in the Midwest Collegiate League.