Baseball Player Angel Mercado-Ocasio Dies from Injury Suffered in Dugout Collapse | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Baseball player Angel Mercado-Ocasio, 19, died Tuesday after suffering a traumatic head injury when a makeshift dugout collapsed on him before a recreation league game on Monday night, according to Alyssa Kratz of Fox 43.

Mercado-Ocasio and several other players were taking down makeshift wooden dugouts at the 7th and Radnor baseball field in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Monday afternoon that they had put up themselves. City officials told them that they needed a permit to build the dugouts.

Harrisburg director of communications Matt Maisel told Fox 43 that "anybody who wants to build something on city property, in this case, a park, has to be contracted out by the city."

Gerardo Diaz, the team's head coach, told reporters that the players were "fooling around" before the dugout collapsed on Mercado-Ocasio, who was transported to the hospital in critical condition.

"Kids will be kids and I kept trying to get their attention," said Diaz. "I kept saying, 'Please stop fooling around; hold it firm.'"

Diaz blamed himself for not playing closer attention to the players.

"I tried my best to protect him," he said. "I got mad at them. I told them to stop playing around, but kids will be kids. I still feel responsible."

Mercado-Ocasio also played baseball for Central Penn College. The school said in a statement Wednesday:

"Our Central Penn College family is devastated by the loss of Angel. 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.

"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 Fox 43, the 7th and Radnor baseball field is among "several" parks in the city that are in need of improvements. In October 2022, the city was awarded a $13 million grant to address the issues, but it is still going through a process to determine how exactly the money will be used.