2008 Woodie Awards
Baseball rivals cross paths at K-Dub
Andy Brockman
Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Sports
| |
|
Both Cilladi and Hartzell are from Arizona. They are also from the same town, which is Mesa. They even played baseball against each other in high school as their two schools were in the same league and were rivals.
With all off these characteristics in common, is there anything else that could make these two players closer? The answer is yes. After traveling the 1,110 mile trip from Mesa to Salina, these two literally met face-to-face.
At a Coyote Baseball practice on Feb. 18, the players were catching fly balls in the outfield. Hartzell plays second base, but the infielders were forced to practice in the outfield because bad weather made the infield unplayable. Cilladi, who was the catcher, was receiving the throws in from the players catching the fly balls, when time seemed to stand still as a short, high fly ball was hit. Hartzell came charging in for the ball and Cilladi started sprinting
after it as well. You could almost see it coming. SMACK!
At full speed, both the player's faces collided. Hartzell said that "Everyone said when we hit each other our bodies spun like helicopters in the air."
Senior Dusty Romero added,"It sounded like a high-five with their faces." The team was in complete shock as both players lay on the ground. Thankfully, both the players were able to get up with help from teammates, but they were severely injured.
"At first, I felt my teeth pushed up into my gums. Then I saw the blood and realized that my nose was broken and my lip was busted up," said Hartzell. Hartzell went straight to the emergency room where he got six stitches in his upper lip and his broken nose was confirmed. Hartzell then went to the dentist because he was missing a full front tooth and half of the other; they put caps over his teeth to cover his exposed nerves.Cilladi did not escape injury either.
Hartzell's teeth hit Cilladi's right cheek, leaving a huge gash in it. It took seven stitches to seal the gash up, four on the outside and three on the inside of his cheek.
When looking for Hartzell's teeth that were knocked out, the rest of the team could find only one of them. Remember the other half of a tooth that was knocked out? Its new location was the inside of Cilladi's cheek. The trainers felt something hard inside his cheek, and sure enough it was Hartzell's tooth. "There was a big chunck of a tooth in there and lots of little fragments," stated Cilladi. Cilladi also said, "I didn't realize how big of a deal it was right after it happened.
I just thought I hit my head hard, but then I looked at my hands and saw all the blood from my face."
Hartzell and Cilladi's injuries were very severe, but thankfully neither was life threatening. Hartzell should be able to play again this year aftergetting his nose reset and getting new teeth put in. However, Cilladi may not be as lucky. Cilladi found out that he has four bone fractures, two on his cheek bone and two on his maxillary
sinus. This is causing blood to leak into his sinuses. Cilladi is scared that he may be out for the entire season, but he and the team is hoping for a quick recovery.
Only time will tell in Cilladi's healing process Kansas Wesleyan baseball players
are the returning KCAC Tournament champions. "The team has more pitching depth than previous seasons," Coach David Dawson said. "We are picked to finish third in the conference, but feel that we could win it. We've been working hard, have quality players, and the team is very coachable. If our new players can adapt to our style of play and our conference then we will be in a good position to accomplish great things," Dawson added.
The Coyotes are now 24-8 overall and 11-3 in the KCAC. Their next game will be against Bethany on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. at Dean Evans Stadium at the East Crawford Recreation
Area in Salina.
Be the first to comment on this story