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The video above is probably the only community-college baseball highlight that’s going to be news outside the state of Arizona this year.
That’s Yavapai College left fielder Austin O’Such that’s heading full-speed over to a scuffle between his team and Scottsdale Community College’s squad, and makes a pit stop to blindside SCC’s Jake Bamrick, who’s chilling on second base watching the action.
After that video of the March 29 game in Prescott hit the Internet, the railroading was determined to be a fair baseball play by precisely no one.
Scott Farnsworth, the athletic director at Yavapai College, says O’Such “was immediately suspended by the college and will be suspended from play for the rest of the season.”
“Yavapai College and the Athletic Department aspire to the ideals of good sportsmanship and fair play,” Farnsworth says in a statement. “In no way do we condone the behavior as recorded in the video, which occurred on March 29, 2012 at the Yavapai versus Scottsdale Community College baseball game.”
As with all nasty, non-game-related hits going on in sporting events, it’s worth knowing whether the incident’s being investigated by police.
Melissa Hodgdon, a spokeswoman for the Yavapai College Police Department, tells New Times charges have not been filed against O’Such, and it would be up to Bamrick if he’d like to press charges. Hodgdon says Bamrick has not taken that route as of yet.
A Prescott police spokesman tells New Times no one reported the incident to that police department, so it’s up to Bamrick and college police.
According to Yavapai College’s athletics website, SCC’s Artichokes won that game 10-8.