Well, you don’t see this everyday.
A Long Island outfielder went above and beyond to catch a deep drive during a County Championship game, yet still gave up a three-run homer. The difference with this spectacular highlight was that he caught the ball. In fact, the issue was that he went too far above and beyond … literally.
As brought to Prep Rally’s attention by Bob’s Blitz, they of the world’s deepest highlight archive, the player making the ridiculous grab you see above is Greg Coman, a senior at East Setauket (N.Y.) Ward Melville High. With his team nursing a lead against Connetquot in the Suffolk County Class AA title game, Coman saw Connetquot slugger Brandon Morse connect on a deep drive to left field. He chased back and elevated to try and catch the drive, eventually pulling it in while making a complete somersault.
Unfortunately for Coman, his somersault took him beyond the boundaries of the soft outfield fence at the field, leaving umpires to determine whether his acrobatic grab would count as an out or a huge three-run homer for Morse.
After some discussion, the umpires eventually determined that the drive was a homer because Coman was ‘outside the playing area’ when he caught the ball.
Luckily for Coman and the Patriots, Ward Melville got the last laugh, with a 12-5 victory moving the squad on to a Long Island Championship matchup against Massapequa.
And the catch didn’t exactly go unnoticed by the broader Long Island public, either. While it didn’t count for an out, Coman’s over-the-fence grab has turned him into an overnight mini-celebrity, with the teen fielding questions from fans at school and all over Long Island about his remarkable catch.
“It still seems a little unreal,” Coman told News 12 Long Island.
Make that unreal both that he caught it … and that he still gave up three runs in the process.
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