Teen hit with line drive at Ramona High dies in hospital

Wednesday, April 10—

The 16-year-old student airlifted to Palomar Medical Center this morning after a softball hit him in the chest at Ramona High School has died, Superintendent Robert Graeff said.

The student, Taylor Dorman, was engaged in a physical education class “over the line” game on the football field about 11:40 a.m., said Ramona High Principal Tony Newman.

“There was a line drive hit off the bat of another student,” Newman said. The hit “caused complications,” he said, and “a little while later the student collapsed.”

The school immediately contacted emergency responders and Fire Station 80 paramedics came.

“They were very, very quick to respond, thankfully so,” Newman said of the paramedics.

A Mercy Air helicopter landed at the school, the fire department reported.

Graeff said he was told Taylor died about 4 p.m. at the hospital.

He said a crisis team of counselors and psychologists will be at the school before school starts tomorrow.

Newman said he will address the campus via the school’s television broadcast system, and students and staff needing assistance will have access to the crisis team. Counseling will be available to help them in any way needed, Newman said — “tomorrow, the day after or any day in the future.”

“He was a great young man,” Newman said of Taylor, a sophomore. “ He was very well-liked by many on campus. This will have an impact on students and staff. We will remember some good memories and keep them alive in our hearts and our thoughts and our conversations.”

Regarding the boy who hit the line drive off the bat, Newman said, “We are concerned about him as well. We’ve been in contact with his family. Our hearts are going out to him as well. It was an accident and was not his fault.”