After tackling a baserunner, Levi Austin enjoying his 15 minutes of fame.
Someone call Viking football coach Tony Kunczewski – this baseball player’s true calling might be as a linebacker for Berry’s football team.
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| Levi Austin, Berry pitcher. |
Berry pitcher Levi Austin, all 6-foot-4, 205 pounds of him, ran from the mound and tackled Hendrix outfielder Collin Radack as he tried to make it home from third on a wild pitch during a game at Hendrix College on March 3.
Video of the incident went viral on YouTube, and it even made ESPN SportsCenter’s “Not Top 10” highlight (or lowlight) segment, and USA Today.
“Nobody, like, directly provoked me or anything, but fans and the other team were provoking our home team,” said Austin, a senior history major from Cartersville, Ga. “But at the same time, we didn’t help it out. We kind of went along with the provoking back.”
Austin said his action was the result of mounting frustration.
“It was just a spur of the moment thing,” he said. “I just wasn’t thinking clear, I guess.”
All publicity is good publicity?
Trying to find video footage of the “lowlight” has become difficult. While on YouTube, the clip was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, but then was removed by the original poster.
“This kind of thing spreads quick, but it also fizzles quick,” said Todd Brooks, Berry’s director of athletics. “But we still need to take it seriously and avoid letting it happen again. Even if it hadn’t made it on YouTube, we still would have had to address it the same way.”
News sites such as USA Today, Sports Illustrated, Deadspin and the Sporting News all published the video with brief articles covering the incident, but most of those videos have also since been removed.
But not before the incident registered as No. 4 on ESPN SportsCenter’s weekly “Not Top 10” highlights.
“If I’m going to be on SportsCenter’s ‘Not Top 10,’ I want to be No. 1,” said the righthander, proving himself competitive off the field, as well.
Austin said he also got a standing ovation in the college’s dining hall.
Several issues with crowd control during the game contributed to the testy conditions, according to Todd Brooks, director of athletics at Berry. Hendrix players and fans had been yelling, cursing and generally behaving in unsportsmanlike ways, he said.
“There’s a lot more behind it than just what the video showed,” said sophomore Tanner Warren, also a pitcher for the Vikings. “There was a lot of heat between the teams.”
Understandable, then, but not excusable, Brooks said.
Consequences
“It does not shed good light on Berry Athletics,” he said. “Young people sometimes step out of line when provoked, but there are consequences. We had to make it known to Levi that we cannot tolerate those types of activities.”
In addition to having been ejected from the game, Austin was suspended for several games and put on warning by the Southern Athletic Association, according to Brooks. As a result, another incident like that on March 3 could mean Austin’s dismissal from the team.
“I am not worried about [the warning] because Levi is actually a pretty good guy,” Brooks said.
Warren agreed with Brooks and said that the incident was uncharacteristic of Austin.
“He’s not a malicious person at all,” said Warren, a sophomore from Thomasville, Ga. “Competition can make people a little more aggressive than at any other time. That can happen to anybody.”
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David Beasley, Berry baseball coach,
who did not respond to requests
for comment.
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Head baseball coach David Beasley did not return messages seeking comment.
A wild pitch and a hard tackle
The incident, which took place in the bottom of the 5th inning, began when Hendrix right fielder Matt Simmons, the batter, called timeout just as Austin was about to deliver a pitch.
Austin threw the pitch anyway, but Simmons was granted the timeout by the umpire. The pitch didn’t count.
On the next pitch, the ball got past Berry catcher Devin Skelton, so Radack broke for home. Austin charged from the mound and tackled Radack to the ground. Players from both dugouts ran onto the field, but coaches managed to separate the teams before things could get out of hand, according to several media reports.
Austin was ejected from the game; Radack was ruled safe at home for a 7-2 Hendrix lead.
Fortunately for the Vikings, several rallies ultimately produced 9-7 win, giving Austin some measure of relief.
The Vikings play their next home game April 9 at 6 p.m. against Emory.
Since the incident, Brooks has been named director of athletics at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va. Brooks has been the athletic director at Berry for the past 16 years. He will begin his new duties June 17.
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