Sunday’s College World Series game between Notre Dame and Oklahoma provided some memorable plays.
Notre Dame got a fairly valuable accidental assist from Oklahoma third base coach Clay Van Hook during the fourth inning. Oklahoma was leading 2-0 and batting with two outs and a runner on first. Sooners outfielder John Spikerman attempted to go from first to third on a single to right field, but looked like he would be thrown out. However, the ball seemingly got knocked out of Jack Brannigan’s glove while the Fighting Irish infielder was trying to make the tag.
Amazingly, the ball ricocheted toward Van Hook, who somehow got drilled in the chest and almost checked out of the play. Spikerman assumed he had been tagged out and began walking away, which gave Brannigan the chance to retrieve the ball and tag out the Oklahoma baserunner.
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Collectively, this is about as strange a play as you will see. If the ball did not hit Van Hook, it was likely headed far away from the bag, and Spikerman could have even scored. Van Hook probably could have done a better job directing Spikerman back to the bag, but he did just take a baseball to the chest out of nowhere.
As weird as this was, it may not even represent the most memorable play of the game.
