Gators knock off LSU, win first baseball national title

Michael Papierski grounded into a double play, allowing Smith to score from third with what would have been the tying run. Instead, Slaughter’s high slide — his foot struck shortstop Dalton Guthrie’s knee — was ruled interference by second base umpire Steve Mattingly, nullifying the run.

Mainieri argued with Mattingly, numerous LSU fans sitting in the outfield of TD Ameritrade Park tossed cups and other debris on the field. They did so again after Papierski’s line drive was caught by a sliding Nick Horvath to end the inning.

Mainieri said Mattingly’s explanation was that Slaughter did not slide directly into the base, hence the interference.

“I didn’t think there was anything wrong,” Mainieri said. “I don’t know what the video showed; I haven’t looked at it…my base runner said he did slide into the base and the umpire said he didn’t, so somebody’s not telling the truth.”...

“They earned it,” Mainieri said. “Kevin [O’Sullivan] does a phenomenal job, he recruits great athletes. He finally got his championship, and I’m happy for him.”

2017 College Player of the Year: Brendan McKay Excels On All Fronts | BaseballAmerica.com

McKay went 9-3, 1.77 in 96.2 innings. At the plate, he hit .308/.418/.431 with four home runs. Just a year after Kentucky’s A.J. Reed won the College Player of the Year award, college baseball had found its next two-way superstar.

Luke Heimlich sex crime surfaces as Oregon State baseball nears College World Series

Two months ago, as the Oregon State University baseball team marched toward the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, compiling one of the best records in college baseball history, a crime surfaced from a star player’s past.

A Benton County sheriff’s sergeant, on a sweep to track down sex offenders who let their registrations lapse, located one at Gill Coliseum, the heart of Oregon State’s bucolic campus. It was Luke Heimlich, the ace left-hander who statistically is the nation’s best pitcher and is among the top prospects in next week’s Major League Baseball draft.

As a teenager, Heimlich pleaded guilty to a single charge of sexually molesting a 6-year-old female family member. Heimlich registered as a sex offender in Benton County after arriving at Oregon State. When he was cited in April for missing an annual update, it put the case in Oregon court records for the first time.

OSU’s top pitcher was 15 years old when the crime occurred in his family’s home in Puyallup, Washington, according to court documents obtained last week by The Oregonian/OregonLive through a public records request. Juvenile court records in Washington, unlike in Oregon, are not automatically confidential.

Texas A&M Wins on Wild Pitch During IBB

On the very day MLB announced its new intentional walk rule, Texas A&M scored on a wild pitch during an IBB to win a game against Stephen F Austin.