Baseball team remembers teammate who died in March car crash
MILFORD CENTER, Ohio (WCMH) – The sounds surrounding a baseball game come from power.
The pop of a glove from a screaming fastball. The crack of a bat from a big-time blast. The cheers of the crowd as a cleat clacks across home plate.
But at Fairbanks High School’s baseball field on Wednesday, the most powerful sound was none at all: a moment of silence for Panthers’ junior Blake Gorton.
“Having somebody in a community like this pass away — it’s something that’s going to stick with everybody forever and always,” said senior pitcher Max Snyder.
Gorton died in a single-car crash on March 2, just about three weeks shy of his 17th birthday. It was also just three weeks shy of the Panthers’ first baseball game of the season.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said senior Hayden Queen. “It’s just tough. I was just with him that day, actually.”
Queen has spent a lot of days with Blake over the years. As the team’s shortstop, and Blake the second baseman, the two stood next to each other every day on the baseball field. As friends, they stood together off the field as well.
“I think most people have one person they can talk to about anything and Blake was mine,” Queen said, smiling.
Then, his face turned serious.
“The road that he died on, I drive on that road almost every single day. You can’t really avoid it. It’s always there,” Queen said.
As team members learned the news the morning after the crash, they found themselves going to the same place to grieve and be together: the Fairbanks High School baseball field.
“This is what he loved,” said senior catcher Cole Justus. “He loved playing baseball and it was the first thing that came to our minds.”
“I told them, me and one of the assistant coaches will be up here all afternoon if you guys wanna come up to the field or come up to the dugout – need somewhere to get away, somewhere to go and talk,” the Panthers’ head coach Josh Rine said through tears. “They all came. It was a tough day but we all got through it together.”
Now, two months later the team and community is still getting through Blake’s death together. On May 8, they all reunited at the baseball field to dedicate a brand new batting cage in Blake’s memory.
“I was thinking of things we could do and I thought that would be a neat thing,” Rine said. “It would be something that’s always here.”
“It was something that drove his life. It drives us,” said Snyder. “It’s somewhere where we can come together and we know that’s where he will be remembered at.”
The Panthers are 10-8 so far this season, 5-4 in conference play and sit in fourth in the Ohio Heritage North.
“They’ve played hard all year and you know pushed on,” Rine said, looking out at his team on the field and holding back tears. “We’ve had some moments that weren’t the easiest but we’ve made it through.”
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