WOODSTOCK — Jason Tarleton was understandably shaken up when Robby Macri and Ben Runstein, two outfielders on his Woodstock High baseball team, collided while chasing after a fly ball during the Wasps’ game at White River Valley on May 5. After all, he’d once experienced the same thing.
In 1998, while playing in a men’s league, Tarleton was involved in a collision that shattered his spleen into five pieces and required emergency surgery. Macri and Runstein weren’t injured quite as badly. But while Runstein escaped with a moderate knee sprain and was back on the field in two weeks, Macri had a number of internal injuries, including a cracked rib, a ruptured spleen, a bruised kidney and a punctured lung, and is out for the rest of the season.
“I talk about (my incident) every year. I had it much worse,” Tarleton said. “We’re just really thankful that it turned out to be something that he’s had a nice recovery from. It’s such a scary thing to see kids collide like that and lay there and not know what’s wrong.”
Macri described it as a “freak play,” and he remained conscious throughout as an ambulance took him to the hospital, where he stayed for two days. He said he was spitting up blood and had trouble breathing because of the punctured lung. But Macri was back in school by the following Tuesday, just five days after the injury.
The collision brought an abrupt end to the senior’s playing days at Woodstock, but he still hopes to make the football team next year at Plymouth State. In the meantime, Macri has stayed with the baseball team as an honorary member of the coaching staff, assisting with the mental side of the game and coaching first base.
“It was pretty hard (because) sports are probably my favorite thing to do,” Macri said. “To have it taken away like that sucks. But being with the team is great. I (coached first) for a couple games, but I definitely miss playing.”
Runstein, a freshman, actually caught the ball in right field as he collided with the center fielder Macri. The teams agreed to suspend the game, especially considering the Wasps would have been left with just eight available players. The Wildcats, who had a 4-0 lead in the second inning at the time, went on to win, 10-0, when the game was completed on May 18.
Woodstock also postponed its next game after the injury, which was scheduled to be at Rivendell. After starting the season 3-2, the Wasps are 3-7 since the collision, including the completed WRV game.
Runstein said he was surprised that Macri, the bigger of the two players, came off worse. He had to be helped back to the dugout by his teammates, and the Wildcats’ players went over to the Woodstock bench to shake hands with him after going through the main handshake line.
“We’re definitely better at calling the ball and communicating,” Runstein said. “That fear is pretty much embedded in our team now.”
Like Macri, Runstein was back in school the Tuesday after the injury and has since returned to the Wasps’ lineup. He walked twice and delivered an RBI single in Woodstock’s 9-2 win over Leland & Gray on Thursday, which snapped a four-game skid.
Tarleton said the entire team was shaken by the collision, but it has helped them appreciate every day they spend together with the knowledge that it could all be over in an instant.
“They work harder at communicating, but it also has brought these guys a lot closer,” Tarleton said. “They were already pretty tight, but we always end every practice and every game coming together and yelling, ‘Family.’ It has a whole different meaning now.”
Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.