Buies Creek was the first stop on a tour to the coast. The Astros, 2018 Carolina League Champions, were playing in their temporary home at Campbell University (In 2019, this Carolina League team moves to their permanent home as the Fayetteville Woodpeckers). A unique feature I haven’t seen anywhere else is the ENTIRELY synthetic playing surface. This was the quietest game I have ever seen. Due to the low attendance, we did come away with two official league baseballs. We didn’t even stay the whole game before we needed to get on the road to make it to the next stop...

I told you Katelyn is tough, maybe the toughest person in the world. After one week in the hospital, she was discharged on June 1. Being herself, she insisted on attending the last week of school even while having daily follow ups with doctors. She has been taught that life is about answering the bell even when it isn’t the easiest thing. 

​Previously planned for an end of school trip was going to the Greensboro/Raleigh area to see a couple more games: Greensboro Grasshoppers and Carolina Mudcats. Katelyn approved the trip and our family healing process was allowed to begin. As expected, these games were different. We implemented a new ballpark family safety plan. More importantly, we HAD to prove that we JUST had the one unfortunate incident, a low percentage accident based on all the minor league games we attend and games I umpire that my family has attended over the years. These venues are extremely safe with more netting than most ballparks and were a great way to start bouncing back and trying to return to normal.

Stadium promotions employees found us shortly after entering BB&T Ballpark and signed our children up for pregame activities on the field. We were high on life and feeling extremely blessed. We settled in our seats WAY DOWN THE RIGHT FIELD LINE enjoying the comfortable weather and were anticipating the Friday night fireworks. A slicing line drive screamed toward our seats. I lost it in a bank of lights, still thinking the ball was about to hit me in the chest. However, two seats over, I hear the thud of that baseball hitting my young daughter in the throat. The throat kept swelling internally and an ambulance had to be rushed to stadium as that swelling was a few more minutes from being fatal. Lucky for us: in the previous weeks we had visited venues hours from home... but being in uptown Charlotte, we were mere minutes from our preferred hospital. Lucky for all the other members of my family is that they never saw that baseball as it was approaching. Unlucky for me, I did. That scene replays in my mind thousands of times a day. Obviously, the story ends well and Katelyn is a hero to many, especially me.

On a quick note: all the employees of the Charlotte Knights have been great to our family. Before we rushed to the hospital, team officials gave us contact information. Through that contact, several office employees visited Katelyn in the hospital and treated us to a return trip to the stadium. We made a few more visits to BB&T Ballpark later in the season and are on a friendly, first name basis with many staff members. Hard times show a person’s character. I think the Preslar family represented themselves well as did the Charlotte Knights organization. Katelyn feels famous at the Knights due to the kind hearts of so many people we met through these unfortunate circumstances.

Durham being a little more than two hours from home made this possible as a one day trip. The world wide brand that is the Durham Bulls (due to the movie from the late 80’s) made for a great total presentation at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The atmosphere was crazy even on a Sunday afternoon. The playing field is one of the best in minor league baseball. Being AAA level, several Bulls were called up the Tampa Bay Rays very shortly after we attended their home game. Durham went on to win the Governor’s Cup as International League champions.

Winston-Salem is only two hours from home, they play in a league named after our state (Carolina League), and just because we could, we made the drive to Winston-Salem, NC and watched two home games of the Dash at BB&T Ballpark. The entire area ranked very well. This small city features a lot of history, art, and culture and was an outstanding blend of big city and small town. Our stadium experience itself was outstandingly unique. For the Friday night game, we walked to dinner and the stadium from our hotel and got caught in a TREMENDOUS pop up rainstorm. We were saved by a stadium employee who had a big enough truck we could sit in and stay dry. The stadium was beautiful and the purple of the Dash’s uniforms are unique to the sport.