Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that Parker Byrd is believed to be the first NCAA Division I baseball player with a prosthetic leg to play in a game.
GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — It was a moment to remember. Historic, too.
In the bottom of the eighth inning of Friday’s season opener for East Carolina University, sophomore Parker Byrd was called on to pinch-hit.
He would draw a walk on a 3-1 pitch that set off a wild round of applause, cheering and yelling from the 5,221 people in attendance. Byrd happily trotted over to first base before being replaced by a pinch-runner who would eventually score on a bases-loaded walk to give ECU a 13-2 lead.
ECU went on to score five runs in that inning, its final time at the plate before Rider was retired in the top of the ninth inning to end it.
While his time in the game was short, Byrd is now believed to be the first NCAA Division I baseball player to play in a game with a prosthetic leg. Athletics spokesman Malcolm Gray said the Byrd family researched for any other examples. NCAA spokesman Greg Johnson said the organization doesn’t track that type of record.
Social media was obviously loving the moment, too.
Byrd was involved in a boating accident in July of 2022 in Bath, North Carolina. It resulted in the amputation of his right leg and led to dozens of surgeries to get him to where he is today. Last March, a grant from the Challenged Athletes Foundation allowed him to be fitted for his prosthetic, which was done in Chicago by David Rotter, one of the top prosthetists in the country.
“Chill bumps, man,” Byrd, an in-state product from Laurinburg, said in his postgame interview with reporters. “It’s absolutely phenomenal.”
Head coach Cliff Godwin — who said last year that he “wouldn’t bet against” Byrd — told reporters it was “one of the proudest moments I have ever had as a coach.”
“The umpire behind home plate told me when I was making a change, he said he’s been umpiring for 17, 18 years and it’s the coolest moment he’s ever been a part of. So he said he was tearing up back there, as I was, when he was running off the field.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.