A former Major League Baseball player died Sunday while trying to save swimmers from a rip tide off the coast of South Carolina, authorities said.

A former MLB prospect who became a South Carolina lawman died a hero after selflessly jumping into treacherous waters to save a family of five from a rip current — and was swept away in front of his wife and three children.

Anderson Childers, a former Orioles minor leaguer, was swept away in a rip current after saving a group of distressed swimmers in South Carolina.