Central Penn baseball player Angel Mercado-Ocasio, 19, dies after makeshift dugout collapses on him

A 19-year old college baseball player has died in Pennsylvania after a makeshift dugout collapsed on him.

Angel Mercado-Ocasio and his teammates at Central Penn College – located near Harrisburg – had built a wooden dugout on a public field in Cumberland County.

But local authorities informed the team they didn’t have a permit to build there and asked them to take it down.

It was as they were taking the wooden framed dugout down on Monday when it collapsed on top of Mercado-Ocasio, resulting in a traumatic head injury.

He remained in the hospital and died the next day from his injuries.

Angel Mercado-Ocasio has died after a makeshift dugout collapsed on top of him

Friends and coaches remembered him as a lighthearted kid and mourned his loss. 

‘Angel had the biggest heart. He was an innocent kid. I just wondered, like, why it had to be him,’ Alejandro Escudero, a friend of Angel’s, told Fox43 News.

One of Mercado-Ocasio’s coaches, who teammates call Coach Cuba, has been taking the loss hard and blames himself.

‘I don’t want to be a knucklehead going against anybody, but when they told me I had to take it down… I did. But taking it down cost my kids their life,’ Coach Cuba said.

‘I tried my best to protect him. I get mad at them. I tell them, “please stop playing around.” But kids will be kids. And, yes, I still feel responsible.’

Harrisburg’s mayor, Wanda Williams addressed his death in a press conference.

‘He died helping others around the sport he loved. It’s heart wrenching,’ Williams said. ‘Angel embraced so many people, and now we need to embrace this memory.’

According to Fox43’s Alyssa Kratz, the city of Harrisburg says no legal action has been taken against it and that it doesn’t plan to launch any action of its own against the coach or players.