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Arizona softball recruit Bri Matthews commits suicide at age 16

by on Feb. 26, 2010, under Sports

Bri Matthews, a sophomore pitcher at Mater Dei High School who recently committed to the University of Arizona, committed suicide Thursday night, according to a story in the Orange County Register.

Matthews was 16.

“We’re devastated and shocked,” said Arizona coach Mike Candrea, whose team is in Cathedral City, Calif., for a tournament. “Right now, we just want to do whatever we can to comfort the family.

“She was a bright young lady. You search for answers. You don’t know why. It just kind of shocks the softball world.”

According to a coroner’s report on Friday afternoon, the manner of suicide was “by ligature hanging,” according to the Register.

Matthews was one of two star sophomore pitchers from California who had committed to Arizona, the other being Nancy Bowling from Royal High in Simi. They were teammates last summer for the Orange County Batbusters, one of the elite travel ball teams in the country. Even at their young age, Matthews and Bowling pitched in the 18-and-under ASA Gold Championships, the top event of the summer.

Matthews, according to the Register, was 14-4 with a 0.98 ERA for Mater Dei, in Santa Ana. She struck out 138 in 107 innings.

Matthews had attended Candrea’s softball camp last December and had been scouted by the coaching staff, including pitching coach Teresa Wilson.

“We were very excited,” Candrea said. “And we’re very saddened right now.”

(An earlier version of the story withheld Candrea’s comments until UA received NCAA clearance to allow the coach to speak about an unsigned athlete.)

This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 12:50 pm and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Glen Peterson

    To her mother…Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has a small, dark place inside us where thoughts like this reside. To the mother… do not beat yourself up about it. You could not have stopped it. It’s that darkness inside us all… sometimes it wins out. It was probably only for a few moments that day that something in her life felt unbearable. So this is the result. You may take solace in this one fact though… the fact that your daughter WAS the special person she was has led to this story going national and reaching so many people. You will never know this but I’m sure there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of teens who will read this and her story will save their lives. Many, who also share that tiny dark spot and have also thought about suicide will give life another chance. And that second thought will save many many lives. Your daughter, though an unfathomable loss, will lead to the saving of so many more. God Bless.

  • Carol Cotrupe

    To Glen,  So well written.  God bless you!
    To Bri’s family, Truly sorry for your loss…my family and I will pray for your strength.  As Glen said, for this to go national, Bri HAD to be pretty special!

    God Bless

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