A college baseball player seen blindsiding another player in a viral video has left school after receiving an onslaught of threats.
Footage shows Austin O'Such, a freshman at Yavapai College in Prescott, Ariz., pummeling an athlete on the opposing team, from Scottsdale Community College. The student was knocked to the ground but uninjured, according to the Arizona Republic newspaper. O'Such was suspended for the rest of the season.
Eleven days later, video of the incident was uploaded to YouTube. Since Saturday, it's been viewed more than 1.8 million times. O'Such began to receive physical threats after someone posted his personal information online, according to Yavapai College athletic director Scott Farnsworth.
"People were saying, 'We're gonna come out and get you, we're gonna take care of this," Farnsworth told the Daily News. "Kinda crazy talk. But in this day and age, you don't know who's serious and who's just talking."
Farnsworth said even the team's coach began to receive threats, including a voice-mail from a Mississippi phone number of someone threatening to fly to Arizona and attack both him and O'Such.
After watching the video, people were "somehow assuming that we planned this or anticipated it or condoned it," Farnsworth explained.
"The amount of vulgarity and threats just seemed to be totally ironic," Farnsworth said. "Here they are, complaining about this uncalled-for instance and yet they're perpetrating the very behavior."
Yavapai officials did not suspend O'Such, but recommended he return home to California for safety reasons.
The 18-year-old, who returned home to California on Monday, is still taking online classes, Farnsworth said.
Meanwhile, O'Such has said he is sorry and writing a letter of apology to the Scottsdale baseball team.
rmurray@nydailynews.com
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