Baseball Critically Injures Pitcher, 17, During Warmup

A 17-year-old Glendale youth collapsed after apparently being struck by a baseball during a pregame warmup and was in critical condition Sunday night, police said.

The teenager, whose identity was not released, was to play that night in an American Legion Baseball League game. He was practicing at Verdugo Park’s Stengel Field about 5:30 p.m. when he threw a pitch to an 18-year old batter, according to Sgt. Rick Young of the Glendale Police Department.

The batter hit the ball and saw the pitcher hold his head and fall to the ground, Young said. The batter, also from Glendale, told police he did not see the ball hit the pitcher because he was following through on his swing.

“We assume,” Young said, that the victim was hit by the ball.

The pitcher was admitted to Glendale Adventist Medical Center with head trauma, according to a nursing supervisor at the hospital.

Other than the batter, whose identity was also withheld, there were no witnesses to the incident, Young said.

Sunday’s incident occurred less than two months after a string of freak accidents took the lives of three high school athletes. In April, Craig Kelford III, a Palos Verdes Peninsula High School student, was fatally injured when struck by a flying discus.

A week later, Heath Taylor, a pole vaulter at Hart High School in Newhall, died when he struck his head upon landing. In early May, baseball star Kriston Palomo was killed when he collided with a batter during a game at Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance.