CORVALLIS, Ore. — Luke Heimlich, one of the best players in college baseball, and certainly its most controversial, strode to the mound, dusted away a patch of dirt with his cleats and lined up for his first pitch.
The home crowd of nearly 3,000, most in orange and black, the colors of Oregon State, cheered, “Luke! Luke! Luke!” They wanted a victory against Arizona State, one of their biggest rivals.
More than that, they wanted a performance that would hark back to a different time — the time before anyone had heard that Heimlich, 22, their hero, had pleaded guilty to a felony: sexually molesting his 6-year-old niece when he was 15.