500 Bid Farewell to Teen Killed by Ball

GLENDALE —  The mournful cries of Julieta Riofrir were the only sounds that broke the silence during a graveside service Saturday for her son, Julius, the 17-year-old athlete who died after being struck in the head with a baseball.

“Julius, Julius,” the woman moaned loudly, before collapsing into the arms of her husband, Emmanuel, as the coffin was lowered into a grave at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

The accident was Southern California’s latest prep sports tragedy. Julius Riofrir was critically injured by a baseball that ricocheted off the side of a batting cage and struck him in the head during a pregame warmup with his American Legion team last Sunday.

One day later, physicians at Glendale Adventist Medical Center declared the baseball player brain-dead due to massive swelling.

The family donated his liver and kidneys. Early Tuesday morning, with family and a few close friends present, Julius’ ventilator was turned off.

At Incarnation Catholic Church in Glendale, where Julius’ funeral was held on Saturday, congregants remembered Julius as someone who put others before himself, whether as a friend, baseball player, Boy Scout or student at Glendale High School, where he recently graduated.

Msgr. Eugene Frilot, who presided over the funeral Mass attended by about 500 mourners, spoke directly to the many young people seated in the front pews of the ornate sanctuary.

“Sometimes things happen in our lives that are difficult to understand and they test our faith,” he said. “Just as a seed must die to produce fruit, we must believe somehow that Julius’ death will produce good things; that is our faith.”

Fred Lingad, who coached Julius at Glendale High and for the Verdugo American Legion Post 288 summer team, remembered the popular third baseman as “the ultimate team player.”

“We have two ways to go on: We can be bitter or we can be better,” Lingad said. “Julius would choose for us to be better.”

Julius was the fifth young athlete to die in the last year in a sports-related accident in Southern California.