It was a tearful reunion with family and friends as the Bradley Braves returned to
campus a day after a highway accident that killed one member of the school's baseball team and seriously injured two others."It was a rough trip back," said freshman Phil Caplis. "We're all stunned."
The players were somber Tuesday as they arrived on campus and showed no emotion until meeting friends and relatives inside Robertson Field House.
Several wept in the arms of relatives. Some talked quietly with their families while others simply embraced. Counselors and clergy were on hand to help them deal with the tragedy.
"The entire university is shocked," said Bradley President Martin G. Abegg.
Tim Trunk, 19, a sophomore relief pitcher from Oak Forest, Ill., was killed in the Monday afternoon wreck in rural Missouri. Center fielder Bob Becker, 20, of Belleville, and second baseman David Carr, 21, of Crown Point, Ind., were seriously injured when the van they were riding in collided with an oncoming truck. The van driver, Michael Bell, was not injured.
The Braves were bound for Wichita, Kan., for the post-season Missouri Valley Conference tournament.
There were eight players and a graduate assistant coach in the wrecked van. The rest of the team, was riding in two other vans.
Athletic director Ron Ferguson said the van was traveling about 35 mph when it passed another vehicle and struck the truck, which was hauling a large earth-moving machine on its trailer on U.S. Route 54, 15 miles east of Mexico, Mo.
Ferguson said the machine was wider than the trailer and part of its wheel sideswiped the left side of the Bradley van as it passed, ripping through the van.
The Bradley ballplayers spent the night in Columbia, Mo., then returned to Peoria on a chartered bus, skipping the tournament.