SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- High school baseball players took to the fields for tournament play starting at noon Wednesday in the near-100-degree heat. Hillcrest and Republic were the first teams to face off in the Price Cutter Tournament.
"We eally talk a lot about hydration. It's not just, 'Come to the game and start drinking water.' They've got to prepare the night before drinking a lot of water, a lot of fluids," said Republic Coach James Hoffman.
Hoffman said he keeps a close eye on these high schoolers competing in the scorching summer heat, especially after what happened to one of his players on Sunday.
"After we got done playing Sunday, we had a player that had a case of heat exhaustion in the parking lot. He made it through the game and got out to the parking lot and starting feeling a little bit dizzy," Hoffman said.
Coaches are trained to watch for those signs of heat exhastion, including: dizziness, nausea, and muscle weakness.
