SC college baseball player dies after collapsing during practice

A University of South Carolina-Salkehatchie baseball player died after collapsing during a team practice Friday, according to the athletics department and county coroner.

Parker Neff collapsed on the field during a team practice and later died at Allendale County Hospital, the Allendale County Coroner’s Office said, according to WYFF. An autopsy will be conducted Monday.

The university and athletics department confirmed Neff’s death in a tweet Saturday evening, saying, “We hold his family in our thoughts and prayers.”

A native of Travelers Rest in Greenville County, Neff was a redshirt sophomore who played shortstop and third base for the Indians, according to the team’s online roster. He wore the No. 13 jersey.

Neff also played for North Greenville University, according to a tweet posted Friday night by the university’s baseball Twitter account.

“To give you some kind of idea what type of player Parker was, yesterday morning he was sitting in his Jeep waiting on me to arrive to open the door to the locker room so he could take some extra batting practice,” USC-Salkehatchie baseball coach Bubba Dorman said over the PA system before the team’s game Saturday, according to FOX Carolina. “Several weeks ago I saw him standing on the sidewalk to the library throwing a ball against the Library wall working on his fielding. Parker was the type of young man that makes coaching a glorious and wonderful profession,” Dorman said, according to the station.

Neff’s death was the fourth of a USC student this week, following the suicide of a student at a campus parking garage in Columbia on Monday, the shooting death of a USC Upstate student at an off-campus apartment complex Tuesday and the kidnapping and killing of USC student Samantha Josephson early Friday.

This story was originally published March 31, 2019 at 8:51 AM.