A University of Michigan baseball player took to Instagram to apologize on Monday for acting like he was doing a line of cocaine while celebrating a bases-clearing triple.
Mitch Voit, a junior infielder with the Wolverines squad, hit the triple in the bottom of the second inning during his team’s 11-0 win over the University of Southern California on Sunday, March 16 and promptly celebrated by bending down to the third base line and acting like he was snorting the chalk on the field.
The 20-year-old’s celebration went viral, leading him to issue an apology on social media the next morning.
“I would like to apologize for my actions on third base yesterday,” Voit wrote in his apology Monday, March 17. “I made an immature decision in the heat of the moment. The gesture I made does not reflect my character, the household I was raised in, or the block M that I represent in any kind of way. I take full responsibility for what I did, and I am truly sorry to all those who I have negatively impacted by doing this.”
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Voit had reason to celebrate Sunday. The former pitcher-turned-infielder was on fire last week, slashing a .667/.739/1.222 batting line over a five-game stretch, which included 12 RBIs, seven extra-base hits and a homerun.
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Voit also made several diving defensive plays during Sunday’s win over USC, and he was ultimately named the Big Ten Player of the Week — the first time in his career he’s been honored with the weekly NCAA distinction.
In response to Michigan Baseball’s social media posts sharing the news that Voit was named the Big Ten Player of the Week, several fans joked about his viral celebration. “Don’t celebrate too hard,” one wrote. Another commenter donned him with the nickname “The Snowman,” while others simply responded to the news with a string of snowflake emojis.
A Milwaukee, Wisc., native, Voit has found success at Michigan, earning both athletic and academic honors during his two and a half years in college so far. Voit, who says he chose to go to Michigan because of its academic prestige, was named to the Academic All Big Ten team last season, one year after being named to the sport’s Collegiate Baseball Freshman Team in his first year in the NCAA.
Michigan is 11-8 overall this season, sitting in the middle of the Big Ten rankings.
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