RBi
10-26-2006, 10:30 PM
ESPN reports: (http://sports.espn.go.com/minorlbb/news/story?id=2639825&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines)
INDEPENDENCE, Va. -- The body of a Tampa Bay Devil Rays minor league pitcher missing after his canoe capsized over the weekend was found Thursday.
Erik Walker was last seen Saturday with a female companion, who made it safely ashore after their canoe tipped in a swift stretch of rapids filled with underwater logs, boulders and ledges on the New River.
Hundreds of people helped in the search for Walker, 23, a relief pitcher with the short-season Class A Hudson Valley Renegades of the New York-Penn League. His body turned up in the same stretch of river where the canoe capsized.
"Water levels had dropped and water clarity had improved sufficiently for us to find him," Virginia game warden Jason Harris said in a statement Thursday.
Walker, of Clemmons, N.C. was a former star pitcher at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Walker family," Mitch Lukevics, director of minor league operations for the Devil Rays, said in a statement. "We came to know Erik as young man who played baseball the same way he lived his life, full of enthusiasm, passion and joy. He was a good player, a good person and a great teammate. He was exactly the kind of individual we would want wearing our major league uniform."
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press
INDEPENDENCE, Va. -- The body of a Tampa Bay Devil Rays minor league pitcher missing after his canoe capsized over the weekend was found Thursday.
Erik Walker was last seen Saturday with a female companion, who made it safely ashore after their canoe tipped in a swift stretch of rapids filled with underwater logs, boulders and ledges on the New River.
Hundreds of people helped in the search for Walker, 23, a relief pitcher with the short-season Class A Hudson Valley Renegades of the New York-Penn League. His body turned up in the same stretch of river where the canoe capsized.
"Water levels had dropped and water clarity had improved sufficiently for us to find him," Virginia game warden Jason Harris said in a statement Thursday.
Walker, of Clemmons, N.C. was a former star pitcher at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Walker family," Mitch Lukevics, director of minor league operations for the Devil Rays, said in a statement. "We came to know Erik as young man who played baseball the same way he lived his life, full of enthusiasm, passion and joy. He was a good player, a good person and a great teammate. He was exactly the kind of individual we would want wearing our major league uniform."
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press