RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Excitement at the Diamond reached a fever pitch on Saturday night as a fight broke out between the Richmond Flying Squirrels and the Altoona Curve.
The brawl broke out in the eighth inning after Altoona Curve pitcher Oliver Garcia threw a pitch that went behind the head of Richmond Squirrels batter Jacob Heyward.
Heyward responded by taking a step toward the plate before stopping himself and turning around, but by then it was too late; Garcia was already making his way across the pitch and the benches of both teams were already emptied.
There had been some questionable pitches from both sides earlier in the game causing tensions to run high before the incident.
The brawl lasted for about two minutes before both teams managed to break it up.
The game took another 10 minutes to start up again as players cooled off and officials reviewed the incident.
An inning earlier, the Curve had been leading the game 4-2. The Richmond Squirrels eventually won the game 8-4.
It is still unknown what consequences, if any, will come from the Minor League Baseball association.
The teams played another game on Sunday without incident, the Squirrels won 6-2.
“To everybody’s credit — both teams and the umpires — you never would have known on Sunday that something had happened Saturday night,” Todd “Parney” Parnell, CEO of the Flying Squirrels told 8News.
It was an eventful opening weekend for the Squirrels, “We had a sellout crowd over opening night, our 12th consecutive sellout crowd, we had four different come-from-behind victories, the sprinklers went on during one of the games and a bench-clearing brawl; there wasn’t a whole lot we didn’t have,” Parnell said.
“I’ve been doing this for 33 years, I mean it happens,” Parnell said. “It doesn’t happen nearly as much as it used to, and baseball has put some things in place to deter that, but it happened. The umpires, in my personal opinion, did a good job of keeping it all together.”
