HOUSTON – A boy who loves baseball lies in the neurology unit of a Houston hospital after a weekend ballgame in Beaumont where a line drive struck him in the head.

Connor Benge threw a fastball from the pitcher’s mound Saturday that a batter hit into the infield.

“He pitched, threw a pitch, fastball,” recalled his father, John Benge. “And a kid caught up with it, line-drived right back to his head. And before you could blink an eye, it was over.”

The ball hit the 12-year-old boy behind his right ear, fracturing his skull and instantly knocking him to the ground.  His father remembers bolting from his seat and running onto the field.

“I mean, it was pure panic, pure panic,” said John Benge. “And to be quite honest, I don’t even really remember how I even got to the mound.  It happened so fast.  You know, I just, in a blink of an eye I was there.” 

A LifeFlight helicopter carried the injured boy back to Houston, where he spent most of the weekend in the intensive care unit of Texas Children’s Hospital. By Monday morning, he had been transferred out of ICU and he was recovering in stable condition, his family said.

As word of the accident spread through social media, friends of the family raised money through a Go Fund Me account. One post showed a touching photograph of the boy’s teammates kneeling on the ballfield as they prayed for their injured friend.

“They did that themselves,” John Benge said. “That was in the moment of panic.  And I ran by and saw them praying by themselves. There was no parents around, there was no coaches around. The heart of children are pretty amazing.”

His parents say Connor has befriended a number of major league baseball players. Since the accident happened, his mother says she has heard from professional ballplayers who have also been struck by flying balls and bats.

“I do think that there needs to be some sort of helmet for pitchers, that they have a chance,” said Kindra Benge.

Although he’s in pain and he’s spending an inordinate amount of time sleeping, his parents say, they hope he’ll feel well enough to watch the Astros’ first home stand of the season in his hospital room.

“He loves baseball,” says the boy’s father. “He’s crazy about it.”