Luke Heimlich's late struggles cost Oregon State in CWS finals opener
OMAHA, Neb. -- Oregon State starting pitcher Luke Heimlich unraveled Tuesday night in the fifth inning of College World Series finals against Arkansas as the Razorbacks rallied to win 4-1 and move within one victory of a national championship.
Heimlich issued a four-pitch walk with one out, surrendered two straight singles and hit a pair of batters before second baseman Nick Madrigal mishandled a ground ball to end the outing for Heimlich.
"I let it get out of hand," Heimlinch said, "didn't stick to what I could control."
The senior left-hander has drawn much attention since he opted not to travel with the Beavers last year to Omaha in the aftermath of a revelation by the Oregonian newspaper that he pleaded guilty in 2012 to felony molestation of an underage relative.
He has since denied committing the offense in multiple interviews -- but was not selected in the Major League Baseball amateur draft this year or last year.
Heimlich allowed three earned runs on three hits in 4 ? innings, Heimlich's third consecutive poor outing at the CWS after entering with a nation-best 16 wins in 17 decisions. The short outing on Tuesday followed CWS appearances against North Carolina last Wednesday and June 16 in which he pitched a total of five innings and allowed eight earned runs on 10 hits.
On Tuesday, Heimlich cruised through four innings with his usual command. Heimlich struck out five as Arkansas managed one hit before the fifth.
"He started to lose it," Oregon State coach Pat Casey said. "He didn't throw the ball where he needed to, and it kind of -- I don't know -- I don't have an answer for that. He'd been real good all year long and certainly really struggled in that inning."
Arkansas did not score and advanced only one runner past second base in innings other than the fifth.
The meltdown on the mound came after a controversial play cost Oregon State at least one run in the bottom of the fourth. With Trevor Larnach at third base and Adley Rutschman at first, Rutschman was called for interference on a force play at second.
"I tried my best to get out of the way," said Rutschman, who ducked but did not slide as he neared second base.
The result sent Larnach back to third and resulted in a double play, though Tyler Malone beat the throw of shortstop Jax Biggers to first. Arkansas starter Blaine Knight then struck out Michael Gretler to end the threat.
Casey said he did not agree with the ruling of second base umpire Chris Coskey on the interference call.
"It's certainly not something that I'm going to say affected us or affected the game," the Oregon State coach said.
Knight pitched six innings and allowed one run on seven hits to improve to 14-0, in line to become the fifth college pitcher in the past 20 years to win 14 or more games without a loss.
Arkansas can win the best-of-three series and its first baseball title Wednesday in a game set for 7 p.m. ET (ESPN and the ESPN app). A third game, if necessary, would be played on Thursday.
