College World Series: Behind-the-plate view of Dylan Crews hit-by-pitch is painful

Florida pitcher Brandon Sproat throws hard. Just ask LSU’s Dylan Crews. 

The Gators and Tigers are currently squaring off in the Men’s College World Series finals and Sproat had his hands full right off the bat in Game 1. Crews, who won the Golden Spikes Award this year as the best player in the country, led off the game for LSU. You don’t want to give a hitter like him anything to hit over the heart of the plate, but on a 1–2 count, Sproat went a little too far inside on Crews and drilled him in the ribs with a 100 mph fastball. 

Thanks to ESPN’s ump cam (which it has also employed on Sunday Night Baseball) viewers at home got to see basically what Crews did as Sproat’s heater barreled down on him. 

What 100mph coming for your Ribs looks like. pic.twitter.com/5onDb5fujg

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 25, 2023

Ouch. 

The mistake came back to bite Sproat as Crews advanced to second on a groundout and scored on a single to left, giving LSU an early 1–0 lead. The Tigers went on to win the opening game, 4–3. Florida got revenge, though, in Game 2 on Sunday, embarrassing LSU in a 24–4 rout. That sets up a winner-take-all Game 3 on Monday night.