Tuesday, Jul. 24, 2007

CSU star athlete loved baseball

They walked over from Ragsdale Field together.

The members of the Columbus State baseball team moved as one, across the street and the parking lot. They passed through the doors of the Lumpkin Center, climbed up the stairs and filed into the second floor conference room.

They shook hands with well-wishers and stopped and stared at the posterboard with photos of Bryan Kilgore.

There were snapshots of the lanky right-hander in full wind-up, a tornado of arms and legs. There was a group picture of the entire team, wearing smiles and holding up a trophy.

They took their places in the folding chairs that had been set up inside the conference room. The shades were pulled down because of a cheerleading camp going on inside the gymnasium. Tumbling mats and screaming teenagers covered the spot on the court where CSU basketball player Jed Bedford collapsed and died in December of 2003.

CSU baseball coach Greg Appleton remembers what it was like at that time, when the entire university mourned the death of a star athlete. At least there was a place to assign blame then. Bedford died of an enlarged heart.

On Monday, however, rumors far outnumbered reasons. The facts remain unchanged from four days ago. Kilgore and his friend, Randy Newton Jr., were shot Friday night at a Steam Mill Road apartment complex. Newton was pronounced dead later that evening and Kilgore died in the hospital Saturday morning.

"I don't know if we'll understand really what happened," Appleton told the crowd at Monday's memorial service at CSU. "I'm upset about it, I'm mad about it, sad about it, bewildered about it. Even if I find out everything that did happen, it's not going to make it any better.

"You can ask anybody who knows Bryan Kilgore. He's a good kid. Nobody can prove anything different to me."

Remembering

So they gathered in small knots to remember all the good in a 20-year-old who loved his family, baseball, video games, chicken, macaroni and cheese. The day Kilgore died, his younger brother, Will, hit three homers and drove in a whopping nine runs to lead the Northern Little League 10-11 All-Stars to an 18-7 state championship romp over Cartersville. In the matter of a few hours, the Kilgore family dynamic swung from boundless joy to unspeakable grief.

"You feel like somebody just walked up and kicked you in the stomach," CSU athletic director Herbert Greene said. "It's not going to ever quit hurting."

An audiotape played in the background. The recorded voice of CSU radio announcer Scott Miller occasionally made people pause their conversations for a moment and listen.

Here's young Bryan Kilgore, a right-hander out of Hardaway High School, 3-2, a 3.18 ERA on the year... .

Kilgore provided entertaining broadcast material for Miller. He teetered on the edge so frequently, working with runners in scoring position, but more often than not getting a strikeout or a ground ball double play at just the right time to exit seemingly inescapable jams.

His delivery was, well, what was it exactly?