Ill. baseball player collapses, dies

ELKVILLE, Ill. -- By all accounts, third-baseman and top student Scott Rosenberger was feeling fine when he took the field for baseball practice Monday in this small southern Illinois town.

But the 18-year-old, who was expected to be the class valedictorian, collapsed soon after running sprints with his team. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital late Monday evening.

An autopsy conducted Tuesday has lead Perry County Coroner Paul Searby to a likely cause of death, Searby said. But he declined to release it, saying not all of Rosenberger's family members had been notified.

Elverado's baseball team was starting drills when coach Todd Tripp noticed Rosenberger had collapsed, Tripp said.

Paramedics were called but could not save Rosenberger.

He was pronounced dead after he arrived at a nearby hospital. The death has shaken the small town, Tripp said.

"In a town like this, it hits you like a ton of bricks," he said.

About 15 to 20 high-school athletes die each year nationwide in sudden, initially unexplained deaths on the field in all sports, said Frederick Mueller, chairman of the exercise and sports science department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Illinois High School Association, which regulates high school athletics, does not track such deaths, said Cheryl Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the group.

But Mueller compiles a yearly survey of sports-related injuries and deaths for the National Federation of State High School Associations in Indianapolis.

Most of the time, the sudden collapses that turn out to be fatal are heart-related, Mueller said.

Rosenberger didn't suffer from a heart condition, principal Walker said. Rosenberger had passed his state-required physical examination two weeks before collapsing, she added.

Nine high school baseball players have collapsed and died suddenly over the past 20 years, according to Mueller's survey. Over the same period, 122 football players and 80 basketball players died in similar incidents.

Yet no sport is more dangerous than any other, Mueller said. Football and basketball see more initially unexplained deaths because more kids play those sports than baseball, he said.

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On the Net:

National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research:

http://www.unc.edu/depts/nccsi/