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Wesleyan baseball is small Division III program that competes in the New England Small College Athletic Conference. The Cardinals consistently finish in the middle of the pack and are neither good, nor terrible. With that being said, outfielder Dylan Judd made one of the worst plays of all-time earlier this month. I am not certain how the video is just surfacing, but it needs to be seen.
During the team’s third game of the year on April 4, an Amherst opponent sent a home run deep to left field. Hung completely out to dry, 6-foot-0, 180-pound Judd took off after the fly ball and got no help from his teammates. His closing speed is rather impressive, but his awareness is not. The junior Cardinal is so locked in on making a play that he has NO idea where the fence is and goes full-send into the makeshift barrier. (Division III doesn’t quite have the facilities of their DI counterparts.) He didn’t even have his glove up in case the ball miraculously landed in his vicinity.
The home run lands a good 7 feet past the fence and gave the Mammoths an 8-7 lead that would go on to become a 12-7 victory. While the loss was demoralizing, Judd’s effort in the outfield may have been worse. His all-out effort is commendable to some extent, but yikes nonetheless.
To make things even more humiliating, Wesleyan head coach Mark Woodworth yanked Judd in the eighth inning in favor of a freshman. To Judd’s credit, he is listed on the team roster as a pitcher, so perhaps left field isn’t his natural home. And on top of it all, the center fielder, shortstop, or really anyone should have let him know where the fence was so he could avoid the embarrassment in the first place. They didn’t even run out to check on him or make sure that he was okay. Look at the 5-foot-7 shortstop just standing there staring at him. So brutal.