Pennsylvania baseball player Angel Mercado-Ocasio died Tuesday after suffering a head injury when a makeshift dugout collapsed on him during a Monday night recreation league game, according to a report by Fox 43. He was 19.
Mercado-Ocasio and several other players had been taking down makeshift wooden dugouts that they had constructed at a field in Harrisburg, Pa. on Monday night when the dugout collapsed on him. 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.
Mercado-Ocasio, who played baseball for Central Penn College, was taken to a Cumberland County hospital in critical condition, where he later died of his injuries Tuesday night.
"As friends who have become family, we are mourning the heart-wrenching loss of one of our own, a promising young athlete who senselessly lost his life while helping others enjoy the sport he loved so much," read a statement by Central Penn College. "No words can adequately express our anguish.
"Our baseball team all said their good-byes to Angel yesterday and expressed their love to their brother. We will all be changed because Angel is no longer with us, but we will also be changed because he was. It is with heavy hearts that we offer our sincere sympathy to Angel's family, friends, teammates and coaches, who will bear the burden of his absence most acutely."
According to Gerardo Diaz, the coach for the recreation league team that Mercado-Ocasio was playing for, the incident happened as players were "fooling around" taking down the dugout.
The baseball field, 7th and Randor, is reportedly one of several parks in the Harrisburg area that are in need of improvements. The city was awarded a $13 million grant to address those issues last fall.
