{"id":37323,"date":"2022-06-05T06:05:26","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T06:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/espn-announcer-apologizes-for-false-tennessee-baseball-report\/"},"modified":"2022-06-05T06:05:26","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T06:05:26","slug":"espn-announcer-apologizes-for-false-tennessee-baseball-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/espn-announcer-apologizes-for-false-tennessee-baseball-report\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN announcer apologizes for false Tennessee baseball report"},"content":{"rendered":"
An ESPN announcer apologized Saturday after broadcasting a false report that a Tennessee player was suspended from the NCAA baseball tournament for performance-enhancement drug use.<\/p>\n
ESPN’s Troy Eklund, a former Arkansas baseball player, made the statement during Friday’s broadcast of an Oklahoma State-Missouri State game. Tennessee, the nation’s No. 1 team and host of the Knoxville Regional, defeated Alabama State 10-0 earlier in the day. It did so without star catcher \/ outfielder Evan Russell, who was a surprise scratch from the lineup.<\/p>\n
Eklund, 55, announced that Russell didn’t play because he failed a drug test.<\/p>\n
“It was pretty crazy,” Eklund said. “He failed a drug test. So Evan Russell is suspended for the rest of the season. So Tennessee’s gonna have the whole rest of the team tested tomorrow – or the NCAA is. … Performance-enhancing drugs is what it was said. “<\/p>\n
Neither of those things is substantiated. Russell wasn’t suspended for a failed drug test, and the rest of the Tennessee team wasn’t subject to NCAA drug testing because of the failed drug test that didn’t happen. It’s unclear where Eklund got the information.<\/p>\n