A star high school baseball player set to make his college debut was found dead early Monday in the subzero cold on a Syracuse campus, officials said.
Searchers discovered the body of Onondaga Community College freshman Alex Hendry, 19, around 1 a.m. near the college’s baseball and softball fields, according to the school. The former all-county player at Hilton High School in the Rochester area was slated to pitch for the Onondaga Lazers this spring.
“We’re coping and we’re doing our best to make sure that we put our best face forward right now, in this very difficult time,” Lazers manager John Sheedy told WROC-TV. “Every one of those 40 athletes that I have on my baseball team is an extension of my family. Those are all my sons. It hits home.”
Onondaga LazersAlex Hendry, a star high school baseball player from Rochester, N.Y., was found dead in the snow just before he was set to make his college debut.
Friends of Hendry last saw him leaving a party he went to Saturday night, officials in the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office said. His roommate reported him missing the next day.
Temperatures in Syracuse dropped to between minus-16 and minus-23 degrees the night Hendry went missing, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported. Investigators haven’t released an official cause of death, but they don’t suspect foul play.
Hendry’s father John Hendry told Syracuse.com his son was found facedown in the snow about 24 hours after security cameras showed him walking across the campus. Alex was a “stud from Rochester” who led Hilton to league titles in his junior and senior seasons while starring as a pitcher, shortstop, center field and catcher, his dad said.
News 10 NBCSchool officials said his body was found near the Lazers’ baseball and softball fields early Monday.
“Everybody liked him and if they didn’t like him, he didn’t give a hoot,” Hendry said. “He was his own man.”
Alex went 7-0 with a 1.98 ERA his junior year and led his team in strikeouts last season, according to stats posted on the Lazers’ website. His brother still attends Hilton High, where officials will provide grief counseling when the school returns from break next week.
“He was talented in baseball, no doubt about it. But I really think he hadn’t scratched the surface to how good he could be. He was just a salt of the earth kid,” Hilton school district athletic director Mike Giruzzi told WHEC-TV. “I can just picture him walking down the hall. He had his baseball hat on. He’d have the long hair and the grin going. He’d say hello and was well-liked by all kids.”
Administrators at the State University of New York community college with 12,000 students, where Alex majored in general studies, also arranged for grief counseling. His father said the college is sending two buses for students to his son’s Saturday memorial at Thomas Burger Funeral Home in Hilton. The family expects between 1,200 and 1,400 people to attend.
With News Wire Services
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