SPRINGDALE -- Matthew Kinsey lost his right leg while serving his second tour of duty in the Army in June 2010.
The injury in the field, the taxing recovery process and the black prosthetic leg he sports now didn't stop him from launching a towering home run over the left-center field wall in his first at-bat for the traveling Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball Team on Friday night at the Tyson Complex.
"You get a chance to come here and play ball for free," Kinsey said. "You get a second chance to be an athlete, you take advantage of it."
And while Kinsey and the rest of the Wounded Warriors team were unable to hold a five-run lead in a 12-11 loss in a seven-inning game to the Tyson All-Stars, there was little doubt which team the majority of an estimated 1,000 fans in attendance showed up to support in the pre-tournament showcase game for the annual Tyson Foods Softball Tournament.
The crowd included a number of amputees and veterans in attendance to support the 11-man roster, which travels to tournaments around the nation, playing more than 100 games annually against able-bodied competition.
It was a festive evening, on and off the diamond. Tyson presented the Wounded Warriors with a $25,000 check and the teams traded gifts before the game began. Patience Beard, who garnered her own national acclaim for being an Arkansas Razorback cheerleader with a prosthetic leg, served as the Wounded Warriors' bat girl after throwing out the first pitch.
"It was incredible," Beard said. "Their recovery and just seeing them out there is inspiring."
The attitude in the Wounded Warriors dugout was competitive but, at the same time, laid back as players' senses of humor and light-heartedness shown through on a regular basis throughout the night.
"I'm trying this new thing called an arm," yelled Leonard Anderson, who served in the Air Force in Afghanistan, as he rushed to put on a prosthetic left arm before leading off the sixth inning.
"He's coming, he's putting his leg on," another team member yelled when Frank Wasson was due up.
Each Wounded Warriors member comes with a military history, but they all have varied backgrounds and unique stories. Many played baseball in high school, some in college. Kyle Earl, who served in the Marines and lost his right hand, bats leadoff after being an all-state sprinter growing up in Michigan.
Kinsley is one of the 11 remaining players in the 29-man program who was a founding member nearly five years ago. Before joining the Army, he was a junior college pitcher in Illinois. He went a team-best 2-for-3 on Friday.
Thomas Carlo, 49, is the oldest team member and has a head of slicked-back gray hair to go with an East-coast accent. He joined the team for its second tournament and has been a part since. After his injury in 2002, the former Marine took it upon himself to provide guidance to other veteran amputees.
"I showed them my prosthetics, articles, me playing ball, me leading unit runs," Carlo said. "Showed them that life isn't over. ... I feel like that's why I got hurt. I got to make it into something positive."
Their play proved that Friday night. New Hampshire native Saul Bosquez, who served in the Army in Iraq, provided one of the night's biggest highlights when he gave the Wounded Warriors a seemingly commanding 11-6 lead with a grand-slam in the top of the fifth inning.
But the Warriors faced a put-together Tyson team that included several former college baseball players, including former Rogers High and Coffeyville Community College standout Cody Neely, who tied the game at 11 with a grand slam of his own in the bottom of the fifth inning. Tyson's team won the game in the bottom of the seventh on a walk-off line drive by Terry Boyett.
"It was a real honor to get to play with these guys who've given so much," Neely said. "I just felt blessed, honestly."
The Warriors will participate in Tyson's two-day tournament beginning this morning. The defeat could well wind up motivation for the weekend as the intensity increases and the stakes will be upped as games begin to count.
"We weren't hitting as well as we could have," said Lonnie Gaudet, who served in the Army in Afghanistan. "We usually can put up 20, 25 runs, no problem. Our little hitting bet doesn't start until (today) for the actual tournament, so we'll see how it goes when all that gets started."
"We're out here to win," Kinsey said.
NW News on 08/15/2015