Baseball team to honor fallen heroes for Memorial Day

NEWARK – This Memorial Day weekend, the Licking County Magic 9U travel baseball team will be paying tribute to fallen heroes.

Rather than wearing their names on the backs of their uniforms, the boys will wear special uniforms with the last name and rank of a fallen hero on the back. The number also will be significant to their fallen hero's life.

General Manager Dane Patterson said he and the coaches do their best to teach the boys about the game of baseball but also to understand the significance of days such as Memorial Day.

"I think even a 9-year-old can appreciate what people have done for our country," he said. "The team is really amped up to wear the jerseys, and we're hopeful it will be a good weekend."

The idea for the jerseys stemmed from a personal tribute the Patterson family wanted to make for Lance Cpl. Alec Terwiske, Dane and his wife Amy's nephew, who was killed Sept. 3, 2012, in Afghanistan.

Terwiske, of Dubois, Indiana, was 21 when he died. amy said her nephew loved his job and was proud to call himself a U.S. Marine, adding she doesn't want him to be forgotten.

"I know for my sister, the most important thing is that he isn't forgotten. These fallen heroes no longer have a voice, and we want to give them one," she said.

Through online research, Amy was able to find names of military members from across Ohio to include on the jerseys. Four of them have personal connections to families on the team.

The boys on the team were encouraged to try to contact the families of those they would be memorializing, and the ones who were successful have received nothing but positive feedback, Amy said.

The meaning of the tribute is not lost on the boys. At a fundraiser for the team, a police officer who had won $85 in a raffle decided to donate the money to one of the players, Zach Morrow, to host a pizza part for the team.

But rather than use the money for that, Zach chose to donate the money toward the jerseys, saying it was more important than a pizza party.

The Licking County Magic will wear the uniforms during a tournament this weekend in Bowling Green. Dane and Amy's son, Tannar, will wear his cousin's name and the No. 30 on his jersey, Terwiske's baseball number from high school.

"We just want to remember all of them," Amy said of the military members on the jerseys. "Those kids are going to be playing for them."

emaddern@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8513

Twitter: @emmaddern

Fallen Heroes honored

The following members of the military will be honored on the Licking County Magic jerseys:

•Lance Cpl. Alec Terwiske, U.S. Marines

•Sgt. 1st Class Bradley Hughes, U.S. Army

•Sgt. Daniel Rice, U.S. Marines

•Sgt. Benjamin Laymon, U.S. Army

•Pvt. 1st Class Jeffrey Rice, U.S. Army

•Staff Sgt. Christopher Brown, U.S. Army

•Master Sgt. Shawn Hannon, U.S. Army National Guard

•Spc. Joseph Riley, U.S. Army

•Sgt. Louis Torres, U.S. Army

•Maj. Michael Donahue, U.S. Army

•Spc. Angel Lopez, U.S. Army

•Pvt. 1st Class Andrew Keller, U.S. Army