Oblivious college baseball coach gets drilled by HR at NCAA Regional
By David Wasson
Published:
One of the first rules of watching a baseball game is to always stay alert for flying baseballs — a rule Coastal Carolina director of baseball operations Mickey Beach clearly forgot Saturday night.
Beach was relaxing along the left-field wall in the Chanticleers bullpen Saturday during Coastal Carolina’s NCAA Tournament elimination game against Florida State when he was beaned by a fly ball off the bat Florida State’s Cal Fisher in the bottom of the fifth.
The broadcast caught Beach looking absent-mindedly toward center field as Fisher’s fly ball clear the fence and drilled him on the brim of his cap – smashing Beach’s sunglasses to pieces in the process. Neither of the two Chanticleers players to the right of Beach were paying attention, either, as only the security guard to Beach’s left tracked the fly ball.
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Fisher’s solo shot, his third home run of the season, gave Florida State a 2-1 lead in the Tallahassee Regional. Coastal Carolina took a 1-0 lead via Trace Mazon’s RBI single in the third, and FSU’s Nathan Cmeyla tied it at 1-1 in the fourth with an RBI double.
The game was delayed by inclement weather and poor field conditions in the top of the sixth and will be resumed Sunday (11 am ET, ESPN+).
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
