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Former Phillies, UCLA pitcher Tyson Brummett killed in plane crash in Utah

Celebrating Kobe Bryant, Don Shula and all of the sports figures we've lost in 2020.
Celebrating Kobe Bryant, Don Shula and all of the sports figures we've lost in 2020.

Former Philadelphia Phillies and UCLA pitcher Tyson Brummett was killed after the plane he was piloting crashed in the Wasatch Mountains near Salt Lake City, Utah, on Friday morning, according to USA Today.

He was 35.

Brummett, according to the Utah County Sheriff, took off in a Cessna 172 from the South Valley Regional Airport in West Jordan, Utah, on Saturday morning. Witnesses, per the report, saw the plane start to turn and then spiral downward before crashing near Box Elder Peak in American Fork Canyon.

Brummett was one of four people killed in the crash, along with his friend Alex Reugner and Reugner’s aunt and uncle, Elaine and Douglas Blackhurst. The four, according to the witnesses who found them, appeared to have died on impact.

The cause of the crash is unknown, and an investigation is ongoing.

Brummett appeared in just one game in the majors for the Phillies, who selected him in the seventh round of the 2007 MLB draft. He spent parts of the next eight seasons in the minor leagues before he was released by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Double-A club in 2014.

The Salem, Utah, native appeared in 20 games and made 18 starts in his senior season at UCLA, and led the team with 109 strikeouts in 132 2/3 innings pitched. He earned All-Pac-10 team honors that season and was the Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week three times.

“Tyson was about team and being a Bruin,” UCLA baseball coach John Savage said, via D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers. “He loved competing in a Bruin uniform, and he was always about the right things. Our players and coaches will miss him very much. He was the definition of a winning pitcher. We love you Tyson.”

Tyson Brummett #59 of the Philadelphia Phillies pitches in his major league debut against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on October 3, 2012 in Washington, DC.

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