Oregon St. ace a sex offender

Oregon State, the No. 1ranked NCAA baseball team in the country and a favorite to win the College World Series, has been led all season by Luke Heimlich.

Heimlich is the nation’s top pitcher and expected to be among the top prospects selected in next week’s MLB First-Year Player Draft.

He also is a convicted sex offender.

Heimlich’s offense came to light after he failed to update his information with the Oregon sex offender registry and was served a citation on campus, according to The Oregonian.

The 21-year-old lefty from Puyallup, Wash., pleaded guilty in 2012 to one felony count of molestation after he was charged with sexually molesting a 6-year-old female relative.

Though the incident took place when Heimlich was 15, he is required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He was sentenced to 40 weeks of detention in a juvenile rehabilitation facility, but that sentence was suspended upon successful completion of probation and two years of sex-offender treatment.

Upon completing his probation, Heimlich moved from Washington to Oregon to attend Oregon State.

Oregon law requires sex offenders from other states to register in Oregon and consistently update their information. Though Heimlich’s offense was a juvenile offense, the records became public as a result of his failure to comply with the rules governing the registry.

Oregon State has neither a policy preventing convicted felons from attending the school nor any policy preventing felons from participating in athletics.

“If we are made aware of an issue, we will mitigate it,” athletic director Scott Barnes told The Oregonian. “We will understand the severity of it, whether it’s a safety concern or not, and we will deal with it.”