College Baseball Player Dies After Dugout Collapses

A Pennsylvania baseball player died Tuesday when a dugout collapsed on him, and the community is reeling from the loss.

Nineteen-year-old Angel Mercado-Ocasio suffered a head injury when the accident happened during a recreation league game on Monday evening, CBS Sports reported Thursday.

The young man and fellow players had been taking down makeshift wooden dugouts they put up at a field in Harrisburg.

“The dugouts were being taken down on the order of city officials, who had told the team that they needed a permit to construct anything on city property,” the outlet noted.

The young baseball player for Central Penn College was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition. However, he later died as a result of his injuries.

Video footage shows a memorial set up at the baseball field in remembrance of Mercado-Ocasio, and those who knew and loved him expressed their grief over what happened, according to WGAL:

“Angel was more than just a teammate to me and my brothers. Being like 4’11” in high school is challenging and he didn’t care who we was going up against. I feel like he had whatever in him to try to beat the opponent,” said Francisco Escudero, who used to play with Mercado-Ocasio.

Meanwhile, Central Penn College expressed its sadness over Mercado-Ocasio’s death in a post on the school’s website:

Today, we are deeply saddened to share that one of the 19-year-old baseball players seriously injured on Monday as he volunteered in a program unaffiliated with the college, helping with a youth baseball league in the city of Harrisburg, has passed away. It is our understanding that he and others were working on a wooden dugout in a city park at 7^th and Radnor Streets in Harrisburg as part of a youth baseball league, when the structure unexpectedly collapsed, causing very serious injuries to two volunteers.

The school’s baseball coach, Bob Stern, said he was in disbelief at the news, adding the young man was on the Dean’s List and had great enthusiasm at games.

“He would do anything for anybody, basically that’s where he was going, just trying to help out someone to get prepared for baseball season. Everybody is still mourning, including myself. It’s just a feeling no one should have to go through,” he continued:

“No one will ever be allowed to wear number 25 at Central Penn College anymore, and we’re going to honor his 25 on our jerseys and hats next year and we will carry his jersey to every game that we go to next year,” he noted.

Per the CBS article, the field is reportedly one among other parks in the area that need to be updated and a few months ago the city received a $13 million grant for those projects.