Injured Little League baseball batter wins over crowd after sweetly consoling opponent who hit him

The coach says he was “crying like a baby” at gesture

A batter for a Tulsa, Oklahoma, Little League baseball team won widespread applause on and off the field after he consoled his opponent during a playoff game.

Tusla’s Isaiah Jarvis had been struck in the head during the game in Waco, Texas, on Tuesday, causing his helmet to fly off. The batter dropped to the floor in agony shortly after, as seen in footage shared by ESPN.

Witnessing Isiaah drop to the floor, Pearland, Texas, pitcher Kaiden Shelton became upset and cried over his pitch, which had caused Isaiah some trouble.

Having regained a clear head and noting his opponent’s distress, Isaiah walked over to Kaiden to console him and said: “Hey, you’re doing great. Let’s go.”

Kaiden’s teammates and coach then gathered around the pair to join in while the crowd watching the Little League World Series playoff gave a standing ovation.

Isaiah told Tulsa World afterwards: “Obviously he felt bad if he was crying like that, and I wanted to make sure he was OK and he knew that he was a dude on the mound; he threw hard; he was doing good”.

He continued: “If I was in that position and just hit a kid in the head and almost gave him a concussion, I would be (crying), too. So I was just going over to make sure that he knows I’m OK and he doesn’t need to be crying because I’m just fine.”

Responding to the events, Tulsa coach Sean Kouplen told the outlet he became emotional during the game and added: “I’ll be honest, I was crying like a baby, it was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen.”

“It just really shook him up, so Isaiah just felt compassion for him, and on his own — none of us said a word to him — went out there and gave him a hug,” Mr Kouplen said. “But our boys had been doing that all week long. That’s the most viral example, but they are amazing, I just couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Video of the incident went viral on social media, with Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum writing on Facebook and Twitter: “So proud of the way these players are representing our city and our state! #OklahomaStandard.”

Pearland won the game 9-4 and advanced to the next round of the tournament, which takes place next week.