Dylan Tarbi wasn’t the best third-baseman Freeport Area Youth Baseball coaches ever saw. That didn’t matter to him, several people close to Dylan said Saturday. The 13-year-old Buffalo Township boy always just worked to be his best.
On Thursday, a day before a pickup truck fatally struck Dylan as he biked 31⁄2 miles from his home, Dylan’s Pony League team was down 4-1 against Kiski Valley at Freeport Borough Field. By the fifth inning, Kiski had worn down an already-thin bullpen, Freeport Coach Eric Westendorf said. Dylan responded — scoring a run on one of two at-bats, and helping Freeport rally to a 6-4 come-from-behind victory.
“If I said, ‘Dylan, I need you to run through this wall so we can win,’ he’d knock himself out doing it,” said Westendorf, 48, the league liaison and a lifelong Freeport resident. “After he scored that run, a parent told me, ‘I’ve seen Dylan before, but I never knew he was that fast.’ Yes, he was never the best .
.. but he always out-worked every other kid on the team.
He was a dream to coach.” Dylan was bicycling home from Cozmic Candy Store on Friday night with a friend — also 13 and from Buffalo Township — when the truck hit the two teens at around 7 p.m.
on Cole Road. UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh doctors pronounced Dylan dead at 8:22 p.m.
, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office said. The second boy suffered minor injuries, according to township police Chief Tim Derringer. Initial reports ind.
