Ariz. Little Leaguer killed after pitch hit chest

PHOENIX (AP) — A 13-year-old Arizona boy has been killed after a baseball hit him in the chest as he tried to bunt the ball.

Jamey Jones, a player agent for Winslow Little League in northern Arizona, says 13-year-old Hayden Walton went for the bunt at a game Tuesday night.

He says when the pitch hit Hayden’s chest over his heart, the boy took two steps toward first base and then collapsed.

He died the next morning.

League President and family spokesman Dale Thomas says the boy’s parents are heartbroken, shocked and unable to speak to members of the media.

He says he grew up around the boy’s family and described Hayden as “the epitome of what every little boy ought to be.”

Thomas says Hayden had a younger sister.