The Dispatch has learned from multiple sources close to the program that Mississippi State pitcher Peyton Plumlee has been suspended for 365 days after failing a drug test during the Baton Rouge Super Regional.
The Super Regional, in which MSU fell in two games to the host LSU Tigers, was held June 10-11.
Plumlee’s suspension is effective from the date of the drug test, meaning he is suspended for almost the entire 2018 season.
According to NCAA bylaws, so-called “street drugs” are punished with a ban of 50 percent of a season, while performance-enhancing drugs are punished with the 365-day ban Plumlee received.
The NCAA lists heroin, marijuana and synthetic marijuanas as drugs eligible for a half-season ban. Cocaine and methamphetamine are classified by the NCAA as stimulants, thus treated the same as more well-known performance enhancers like anabolic steroids.
This was Plumlee’s first season with MSU after transferring from Northwest Community College. Plumlee, from Olive Branch, threw 74 innings in 26 appearances, eight of them starts, with a 4.01 earned run average. Plumlee was primarily used as a long relief option in the second half of the season and was effective in that role, at one point piecing together a six-appearance streak with seven earned runs allowed in 19 innings.
MSU is likely to turn to pitchers in the incoming recruiting class to fill his role.
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