An ESPN announcer has apologized after apparently slandering a college baseball player.
Analyst Troy Eklund apologized on-air on Saturday after he said during a Friday broadcast that Tennessee star catcher Evan Russell missed his team's game on Friday because he had tested positive for performance-enhancers.
In fact, Russell was merely sick, and by Saturday morning he was cleared to return to the lineup, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
“It was pretty crazy, failed a drug test so Evan Russell is suspended for the rest of the season," Eklund said while doing color commentary Friday's Missouri State-Oklahoma State game. "So Tennessee is going to have the whole rest of the team tested tomorrow, or the NCAA is. So it’s going to be interesting to see if that’s just a one-player thing or throughout that is going through that whole entire program. Performance-enhancing drugs is what it was said."
Tennessee refuted Eklund's reporting.
“Evan Russell’s absence last night had nothing to do with any violation of team, NCAA, or SEC rules," the school said in a statement.
Russell's father also denied the report in his own social media post on Friday night. Instead he cited a "health issue."
"Evan will an evaluation/physical with the Doctor this morning. He hasn’t failed any type of test or anything. He had a health issue arise that kept from from playing Yesterday. This is standard testing to be done. Evan will most likely be available today. God bless."
During Saturday's coverage of the College World Series, Eklund apologized to Russell and Tennessee for the "inaccurate, unsourced information" he reported on Friday.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram