Cathedral’s White expected to recover

Published 12:12 am Friday, April 23, 2010

BATON ROUGE — Cathedral pitcher and second baseman Dylan White is expected to make a full recovery from a vicious injury suffered in the Green Wave’s game Tuesday night that has put him in a Baton Rouge hospital with a fractured skull.

Cathedral coach Craig Beesley said White suffered a fractured skull by his orbital bone and bleeding on the brain behind his eye.

A CAT scan is scheduled for 6 a.m. today where doctors will find out if the bleeding has gone down, stayed the same or increased.

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If it has gone down, White might be released from the hospital today, Beesley said.

“He’s going to have a full recovery, but it’s just a matter of time and healing of the bone,” Beesley said. “It will take a while for the bone to heal, but it should heal on its own.”

White, who was playing second base at the time, and shortstop Daniel Huffines were both injured while trying to catch a softly hit line drive in the bottom of the sixth inning of Wednesday’s game against St. Stanislaus in Hammond, La.

The two both dove for the ball, and their heads collided while both were parallel to the ground.

“It was a big collision,” Beesley said. “It looked like both of them took a good blow, but Dylan took the worst of it because of the location it hit on his head. It hit the orbital bone right above his eye.”

Both were taken to the local hospital where Huffines was diagnosed with a concussion. He was released later that night.

White was transported to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital when the fractured skull and bleeding on the brain was discovered.

Beesley visited with White Thursday evening and said the senior was in good spirits despite the injury.

“We talked for about five minutes and I told him we were all thinking about him,” Beesley said. “His eye was swollen shut, and they did a test on his vision today, which was one of our main concerns. His eye reacted well. His pupil reacted to light and he was able to follow movement.

Beesley said Huffines will be back playing when the playoffs begin next weekend, but White’s season, and career, is over.

“It’s hard as a coach to see a senior who has worked as hard as he has for four years and then have this happen at the end of his senior year,” Beesley said. “It is a shock to all of us, especially the kids. Our thoughts and our prayers are with him.”