In the middle of the bottom of the seventh inning, the Braves were looking good. They had a 10-2 lead over Gardner-Webb, bats were hot and pitching was strong. Suddenly, there was some yelling and laughter in the background of the broadcast.
Lo and behold, two parrots suddenly appeared. The birds soared around for a little bit before one of them ultimately decided to land on the home plate umpire, Chad Stears. With a graceful composure, Stears allowed the bird to rest on him and jokingly went to put his mask back on to continue the game.
In the end, the UCF grounds crew came out, and one staff member allowed the bird to move onto his hand so he could take it to safety and the game could continue.
Bailey Sample and
Grace French got on the phone to talk about the situation. "I did scream and run away because I'm pretty sure one of them had a vengeance. He was looking for me, and so I was just not having it. I was scared," Sample said.
French, however, could see them coming before they arrived. "In the middle of that last pitch, I saw something from my peripheral, so they were coming from right field. Right after that pitch, the umpire was like, 'Yeah, they almost got us.'"
Stears was visibly unaffected by the parrot landing on him, cracking a smile and laughing with catcher
Jordy van der Werf. "That was so cool, honestly. He was just chilling. He was ready to play," Sample said about the bird.
When asked if anyone else was freaked out, Sample and French couldn't help but laugh and say everyone was. "A bunch of us were in the circle just waiting it out, and then it came into the circle," French explained.
The team had a good laugh after the short parrot delay, with Sample saying it's "a memory I'll never forget."
The video captured from the broadcast was put on the team's social media channels, and it became an instant hit. In less than 11 hours, the video received nearly 50,000 views and over 400 likes. It was picked up by a number of other accounts, such as NCAA Softball, MLB Pipeline, CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bally Sports and ESPN.
It turns out that the two parrots were pets! After finding the video on Twitter, the owner of the birds revealed that their names are Tiki and Lelu. Tiki was the one who decided to take a short break and sit on Stears shoulder for a few moments. The birds often fly around near the stadium and are free-flight trained, which means they can fly unrestricted when outdoors. Tiki and Lelu heard all the commotion over at the field and decided to check out the action.
A few of the Bradley players tweeted about the video...
"Biggest fans of the day..." -
Kierston McCoy
"ICONIC" -
Jordy van der Werf
"i did in fact get attacked by a parrot" -
Bailey Sample
"Birds are scary" -
Katie Pederson
"funniest in game experience ever" -
Lauren DeRolf
Check out the full video below!
