College Baseball Fans Witnessed The Rare Feat Of A Broken Metal Bat At The NCAA Regionals

A baseball and bat sit on the grass.

iStockphoto


College baseball fans got the pleasure to witness a rare feat over the weekend. During an NCAA regional matchup between Vanderbilt and Eastern Illinois, a player broke his aluminum bat after making contact with a pitch.

Commodore outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. was the hitter, and he was so surprised by the occurrence that he didn’t know what to do. Rather than break for first base out of the batter’s box, he froze.

After taking a moment to look around, he realized the ball was making its way out towards right field and took off down the line. He didn’t get far as an Eastern Illinois defender made a diving catch to record the out.

Even commentators were shocked by the instance.

“Is that a broken bat?” one announcer asked. “Let’s take a look at that bat. That is a BAD bat, that’s what that is.”

“We’ve got a broken bat, folks. You rarely see that.”

This is something that’s seen frequently at the professional level, but it’s seldom seen in the college game. Fans on social media were quick to react to the bizarre scene.

One person wrote, “That had to have a tiny crack somewhere. Happened to me once when it was cold.”

Another follower said, “My hands would still be vibrating.”

This fan commented, “I didn’t know this was possible.”

The broken bat, and fantastic catch for that matter, were exciting highlights in what wound up being an uneventful game. The Commodores won that opening matchup in blowout fashion, 12-2, though they failed make it out of their regional following losses to Oregon and Xavier.

The Vanderbilt baseball season is now over.