Fan OK after foul ball shatters stadium light, causes glass to fall on bleachers
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Give or take 500 feet, and it being in the opposite direction, it was just like the famous Robert Redford scene in "The Natural."
On Tuesday night, in Game 1 of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 3A best-of-three series, a foul ball went into the stadium lights and broke a light fixture. The ball's impact sounded like a special effect played for foul balls that go into the parking lot. Only this time, it was real glass, and it fell like snow onto visiting fans and the playing field.
It could have been worse in terms of injuries, given a human's natural tendency to look in the direction of where a loud sound is coming from.
"It was slow motion," fan Morgan Fairbrother said. "Someone said 'Duck' and I ducked, but it still hit me. ... but if I hadn't have ducked it would've hit me right in the eye."
While most the fans in that section of the bleachers escaped without needing medical attention, Fairbrother was the exception. She suffered a cut over her right eye that was taped over. She was told by medical staff she may need to get it stitched if it was still bleeding the next day.
Fans are used to ducking foul balls. In this case, the ball ricocheted off the bottom row of lights and had landed onto the field before the glass followed.
"I wasn't even thinking about (the glass) because I knew the ball (had already fallen)," Fairbrother said.
The game was delayed for a few minutes as fans relocated and a crew of workers began to sweep up glass on and off the field.
Christian Chance, who hit the foul ball, came by to apologize to Fairbrother after the game. Chance will be remembered more for another ball he hit — the first of what turned into a record-setting three grand slams by South Central in an 17-1 win at Terry Sanford.
