WFU Baseball Team Donate Proceeds to Boston Marathon Bombing Survivors

Members of the Wake Forest University baseball team are reaching out to support the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombings.

This weekend, the Demon Deacons will host Boston College for a three-game series. Steve Shutt, assistant athletic director for Athletic Communications, says the team has ties to Boston.

“We have four Boston area players on our team and a player from southern New Hampshire,” he explains. “So the team felt it was appropriate to donate the gate receipts to the One Boston Fund.” 

The One Boston Fund was created by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino. It's raising money for the families affected by Monday's bombing.

The WFU baseball players from the Boston area are: third baseman Joe Napolitano, freshman from Concord; right-hand pitcher Colin Egan, sophomore from Medford; left-hand pitcher Max Tishman, freshman from Wellesley and right-hand pitcher Aaron Fossas, redshirt freshman from Dudley. Right-hand pitcher Nate Jones is a junior from Greenland, New Hampshire.

Shutt says none of the Wake players have family involved in the Boston Marathon bombings. “All of our Wake Forest student athletes and I think all of the students take the idea of Pro Humanitate to heart and they try to live it out as part of their everyday life,” says Shutt.

Shutt added, “It sends a message we should be concerned for the greater good.”

The series will be played at Wakes Forest's baseball park on Deacon Blvd. First pitch is 3 p.m. Saturday and the second game will follow about 40 minutes after the first one ends. The final game will be Sunday at 1 in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Triad police and sheriff departments say in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, they are becoming more vigilant when mapping out the security plans for open-air, public events. Captain John Wolfe is with the Special Operations Division of the Greensboro Police Department. His team coordinates security with all event organizers. “I think in the future we're going to look at those spaces more critically”, explains Captain Wolfe. “And it's important for everyone to know we're not going to let anyone in the public be at risk for harm.” Captain Wolfe says more security sweeps will be done prior to and during events. Also there will be an increased presence of Greensboro police to monitor.