SU Baseball Team Rallying Around Teammate After Cardiac Arrest - WMDT 47 News - Delmarva's Choice

SALISBURY, Md. - Salisbury University officials confirm that freshman pitcher Zach Lucas collapsed moments after the season opener on the pitcher's mound.

Andrew Levy, the team's starting pitcher and team captain in Tuesday's 5-3 victory against Virginia Wesleyan, says he was shaking opposing player's hands when he says that "a couple of guys were saying 'whoa, whoa look over there.'"

"To make a long story short, somewhere along the process, his heart stopped," said head coach Doug Fleetwood.

Athletic trainer Bryan White, and three of his students, tell WMDT how they rushed to the scene, using CPR and an automatic external deliberator to resuscitate the pitcher, who did not play in the game.

"Within minutes, he was revived and luckily enough he was alive when the paramedics got here," said White.

"Fortunately because of their expertise and the way they handled it, he survived and is quite well I think," said Fleetwood.

When asked if he has ever been through a situation like this before, Levy says that in his 16-17 years of playing baseball he has never seen it.

"The best thing that came from it was the way we were able to rally around it and rally for him and support him and go visit him and see him," said Levy.

"You prepare for it, you understand it's always a possibility, but you hope it never happens," said White.

Coach Fleetwood admits he's proud of his training staff.

"Quite frankly, the young man, he owes his life to them right now. He's a young kid, young kid. He's one of our pitchers, a kid in great shape. [He's] just a tirelessly worker, works with what he does. It's just one of those crazy things that maybe we never answer.

"He's in good hands, he's bring seen by the people here, the cardiologist here as well the people at [John] Hopkins [Hospital]."

As players practiced on Thursday afternoon, Levy says that the event "is going to bring us close together as a team and give us that little extra desire to want to do it for him."