Louisiana Tech escaped with a 5-4 win over Sam Houston State in Saturday afternoon’s college baseball game. The Bulldogs got extremely lucky after a major blunder by the Bearkats.
A game-tying home run was overturned because the batter failed to touch home plate!
Sam Houston was down by one run when catcher Walker Janek stepped into the box with two outs and nobody on in the top of the eighth inning. He swung at the first pitch he saw.
It went flying over the wall in left field at the Love Shack in Ruston and te game was tied at 5. Until it wasn’t!
Janek made his way around the bases, turned around third and headed for home. His teammate, junior infielder Hunter Autrey, was waiting for him at the dish.
To celebrate the game-tying moonshot, Janek skipped over to lock elbows with Autry. However, in his excitement, he failed to touch the plate.
Louisiana Tech called for a review, which was granted by the umpires. They ultimately determined that no part of Janek’s foot touched the base in any capacity. The home run was taken off of the board.
This game-tying home run was overturned as umpires ruled he did not touch home plate pic.twitter.com/n0yOUr74gq
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 28, 2024
It was absolutely the correct call. There is no room for debate.
Janek’s right foot came down with a solid inch between his toe and the plate. His left foot landed in the opposite batter’s box. He totally missed!
The Bulldogs went on to beat the Bearkats by one run— by Janek’s run.
La. Tech and Sam Houston are fighting to make the college baseball postseason. The former is likely in at this point. The latter will need to stack a few more wins, and Game 2 would have been a big boost to its résumé.
They might not have won anyway. We will never know because of Janek’s blunder!