{"id":595501,"date":"2026-02-27T05:09:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T05:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/595501\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T05:09:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T05:09:41","slug":"virginia-college-baseball-player-dies-at-19-after-crashing-his-car-near-school-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/595501\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia College Baseball Player Dies at 19 After Crashing His Car Near School Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n<p>A Virginia college student has died following a single-vehicle crash<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to PEOPLE, a spokesperson for Radford University\u2019s baseball team identified the deceased as Joey Raccuia<\/p>\n<p>The athlete was a middle infielder and right-handed pitcher at the time of his death<\/p>\n<p>A Virginia college freshman has died after being involved in a fatal car accident this week.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Feb. 26, Radford University\u2019s baseball team confirmed via social media that player <a href=\"https:\/\/radfordathletics.com\/sports\/baseball\/roster\/joey-raccuia\/9538\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Joey Raccuia;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Joey Raccuia<\/a> was killed.\u00a0He was 19.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are heartbroken to share news of the passing of Joey Raccuia. Joey&#8217;s impact on our team, this community and all the lives he touched went far beyond the playing field, and we miss him deeply,\u201d an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DVPETtlEhn6\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram post;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Instagram post<\/a> read.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the school also confirmed his death to PEOPLE.<\/p>\n<p>PEOPLE could not immediately reach the Radford Police Department for comment.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Joey RaccuiaCredit: Radford Athletics\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"480\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0485d0b7f71bb9984810a11155b5a0b4.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Joey Raccuia<br \/>Credit: Radford Athletics<\/p>\n<p>The middle infielder and right-handed pitcher was the son of former Radford University head baseball coach Joe Raccuia, <a href=\"https:\/\/roanoke.com\/sports\/college\/baseball\/article_d981b6fc-9d5c-4538-ba9a-ae04d6e49ea4.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Roanoke Times;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The Roanoke Times<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>According to the news outlet, the single-vehicle fatal incident took place on Wednesday, Feb. 25 at approximately 11:20 a.m. on East Main Street, not far from Radford\u2019s baseball stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Though first responders provided medical support, Raccuia was pronounced dead at the scene, the outlet added.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to attending Radford University, Raccuia was a student at PDG Academy during high school, per his athletic profile on the university\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<p>He appeared in two of Radford\u2019s first seven games, making one start, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pennlive.com\/sports\/2026\/02\/college-baseball-player-dead-at-19-following-car-crash.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Penn Live Patriot-News;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Penn Live Patriot-News<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Joey RaccuiaCredit: Radford Athletics\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"480\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/e0388bf0fff77adb76034db7f0e93547.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Joey Raccuia<br \/>Credit: Radford Athletics<\/p>\n<p>Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for PEOPLE&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/people-news-daily-newsletter-sign-up-8692701\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:free daily newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/p>\n<p>The cause of the crash remains under investigation. No additional details were released. However, anyone with information regarding the fatal collision is asked to call Capt. J.L. Slaughter at 540-267-3711, per The Roanoke Times.<\/p>\n<p>The Radford University baseball team\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/radfordathletics.com\/sports\/baseball\/schedule\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:next game;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">next game<\/a> is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 27 against the Bryant University Bulldogs.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/virginia-college-baseball-player-dies-19-after-crashing-his-car-near-school-stadium-11915700\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:People;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">People<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW A Virginia college student has died following a single-vehicle crash In a statement to PEOPLE,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2289],"tags":[5,30,648,77719,58839,1694,2341,77718,77721,77720],"class_list":{"0":"post-595501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-college-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-baseball-team","10":"tag-college-baseball","11":"tag-joey-raccuia","12":"tag-middle-infielder","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-baseball","15":"tag-radford","16":"tag-radford-athletics","17":"tag-radford-police-department"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116140873231778073","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}