{"id":602171,"date":"2026-03-02T19:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/602171\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T19:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:58:14","slug":"college-baseball-player-killed-in-car-crash-days-after-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/602171\/","title":{"rendered":"College baseball player killed in car crash days after debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Radford baseball player Joey Raccuia was <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/college-baseball-world-mourns-death-110058660.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">killed in a single car crash<\/a> on Wednesday, just four days after the freshman made his collegiate debut.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are heartbroken to share news of the passing of Joey Raccuia,\u201d Radford Baseball shared in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DVPETtlEhn6\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">post on Instagram<\/a>. \u201cJoey\u2019s impact on our team, this community and all the lives he touched went far beyond the playing field, and we miss him deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is with deep sadness that I share news of the death of Joey Raccuia, a first-year student at Radford,\u201d said vice president of student affairs Susan Trageser in a message to the Radford community. \u201cWe are heartbroken by his passing yesterday and extend our condolences to his family and friends during this difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The crash occurred just a few miles away from the Highlanders\u2019 baseball stadium. Raccuia, a 19-year-old shortstop\/right-handed pitcher from Radford, was pronounced dead at the scene. It\u2019s still unclear what caused the crash.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to his death, Raccuia played in two of Radford\u2019s first seven games, going 0-for-3 in his only at-bats.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s the son of former Radford head coach Joe Raccuia, who left the program in 2019 after 12 seasons at the helm. During that time, the Highlanders advanced to the NCAA Tournament twice. He now works as a player development staff member for the Kansas City Royals.<\/p>\n<p>In Radford\u2019s next game after the tragic news, the Highlanders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DVSG69jjPzC\/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">walked off Bryant<\/a> on Friday via a Brady Whitacre RBI single, coming back from down one in the bottom of the ninth to win 5-4.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.77777778;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38649754\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/college-baseball-player-debut-crash-dead-02.jpg\" alt=\"A large group of college baseball players in white uniforms and dark caps pile on top of each other at the end of a game.\" class=\"wp-image-38649754\"  \/>Radford walked off Bryant in its first game after Raccuia\u2019s death. ESPN<\/p>\n<p>Current manager Alex Guerra and his players dedicated the win to Raccuia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Raccuia] was clearly with us today,\u201d Guerra said postgame. \u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no question about it. If you don\u2019t believe in a higher power, you better start believing after that. It was fate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe knew before the game, no matter how it went, we were going to stick together,\u201d Whitacre added. \u201cWe had the conversation too of \u2018What would Joey want to do?\u2019 Joey would want to go out and play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Radford will look to continue to honor Raccuia during its series with Virginia Tech, which begins Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Radford baseball player Joey Raccuia was killed in a single car crash on Wednesday, just four days after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2289],"tags":[5,44962,648,1694,2341,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-602171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-college-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-car-crashes","10":"tag-college-baseball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-baseball","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116161355182950552","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602171","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=602171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}