East Carolina baseball player Parker Byrd made history Friday, but the moment wasn't about history. It was about perseverance.
A year and a half after having his right leg amputated due to a boating accident, Byrd made his college debut, taking the field with a prosthetic leg in the eighth inning of his team's season opener. He is the first athlete to play in a Division I baseball game with a prosthetic.
Naturally, he received a standing ovation from the Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium crowd in Greenville, North Carolina, as he walked to the plate as a pinch-hitter. He drew a walk in his lone plate appearance in a 16-2 win for the No.