A nine year-old bat boy has died after being hit in the head during a National Baseball Congress World Series game in Kansas on Saturday.
Kaiser Carlile’s death was confirmed by the Liberal Bee Jays team in a Facebook post. “With the permission of the family, and with much sorrow and a very broken heart, I regretfully inform everyone that Kaiser Carlile passed away earlier this evening,” said the statement. “Please keep his family and our team in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you all for the support during this ordeal.”
The team’s general manager, Mike Carlile, is the cousin of Kaiser’s father and expressed his sorrow at the events. “We just lost a little, 9-year-old Bee Jay and it’s incredibly sad,” he told the Wichita Eagle. “No one wrote us a book to tell us how to do this. We’re just dealing with it the best way we know how and that’s to keep coming out and keep honoring Kaiser on the field.”
Kaiser was wearing a helmet when he was accidentally hit by a follow-through swing near the on-deck circle. He died on Sunday.
Kaiser’s parents said they wanted the Bee Jays to go ahead with their game on Sunday night, which the team won 8-0.
“It is such an unfortunate accident and all we can do is be strong for the family,” said the team’s manager, Adam Anderson. “That’s all they wanted us to do was go out there and play a good baseball game and that’s what we did.”
