news-record.com

GREENSBORO — For more than seven innings on Sunday, the ACC baseball championship game produced the excitement and thrills for which any conference would hope: big plays from each team, lead changes and a tight margin.

But when the decisive play in the Seminoles’ 8-3 win at NewBridge Bank Park came, it turned out to be as frightening as it was meaningful.

Attempting to score on a sacrifice fly with two outs in the eighth inning, Seminoles right fielder James Ramsey plowed violently through Wolfpack catcher Chris Schaeffer on his way to the plate, putting the Seminoles up 6-3 and extending the four-run breakout inning that sealed their win.

But the violent impact — which knocked Schaeffer on his back and appeared to strike his head on the infield dirt — also sent Schaeffer to the hospital with a concussion, and dealt N.C. State and emotional uppercut.

Schaeffer lay motionless in the dirt for at least a half hour after the collision while surrounded by trainers and paramedics, who immobilized his head, placed him on a back board and loaded him into an ambulance while the crowd of 6,274 stood silently.

Schaeffer waved to the crowd before being loaded into the ambulance and transported to Moses Cone Hospital, where school officials said he was conscious and joking with medical staff while preparing to undergo a CT scan.

The encouraging news did not cool the mood of N.C. State coach Elliott Avent, who said Schaeffer had been knocked unconscious on the play.

“Everyone’s telling me … that when I see the replays I’m gonna change my mind,” said Avent, whose team was seeking its first ACC baseball title since 1992.

“To say he didn’t lower his shoulder, maybe he didn’t. But it was a hell of a collision, I’ll tell you that. Could’ve been avoided, should’ve been avoided. He should’ve been out and thrown out, in my opinion.”

The umpires disagreed, though. Home plate umpire David Savage explained after the game that the officials determined Schaeffer was obstructing the plate because he was blocking it and was not in possession of the ball.

They did not see Ramsey lower his shoulder or throw his forearms or an elbow, which could be considered ejectable offenses.

Ramsey also downplayed the nature of the collision, describing it as a typical baseball play.

“We were running, all of a sudden you just hit somebody, not really thinking anything about it,” Ramsey said.

“It’s just a play that happens in baseball, whether you’re a second baseman going back on a fly ball and you hit your teammate, you’re just playing the game.”

The play produced a critical swing. Ramsey, appearing dazed from the collision, crawled to home plate to boost the Seminoles’ lead to 6-3. And after the lengthy delay, Rafael Lopez drove in Stephen Cardullo and Stuart Tapley with a single to right field to increase Florida State’s lead to 8-3.

That four-run inning — which started with a home run by Mike McGee — doused the Wolfpack’s hopes.

Players admitted that it was difficult to return to the game after the emotional delay, and while Matt Bergquist walked to lead off the ninth inning, the next three batters were retired in order to clinch the Seminoles’ fifth ACC championship.

“We wanted to win the game for him,” Kyle Wilson said of Schaeffer.

“We had all the confidence in the world. We’d done it all year, come back in the ninth inning and win games. There was no doubt in any of the players’ minds that we could come back and win. It didn’t work out for us as good as we would’ve liked.”