Metro

Phillies minor-leaguers hurt in Staten Island bus crash

Two players and a coach of the Williamsport Crosscutters, a Class A team minor-league baseball team affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies, suffered minor injuries when their bus was involved in an accident on Staten Island, authorities said.

The accident happened at around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night.

The injured, two pitchers and a strength and conditioning coach, were taken to a local hospital. They were treated and released.

The accident occurred after the team beat the Brooklyn Cyclones, 7-2, on Coney Island.

The team is scheduled to play the Cyclones at noon today.

The bus was heading from the Cyclones field to the Holiday Inn in downtown Brooklyn when the driver got lost and wound up on Staten Island. He was turning around to get back on the Brooklyn-bound Verranzano-Narrows Bridge when the freak accident happened about 11:30.

“Before the accident It seemed like we were lost, but we get lost on every trip,” said Joe Charlton, the team’s reporter who was a passenger.

Players and staff alike pushed open windows used as emergency exits and dropped to the roadway seven feet below, he said.

“We all jumped out of the window, I was like wow, we almost went over,” Charlton said.

Gabe Sinicropi, the team’s vice-president for marketing and public relations, did not name the three people injured.

Sinicropi called the accident “pretty harrowing,” adding that “the end result was not bad.”

“We’re just thankful that it wasn’t anymore serious,” he added. “It definitely was inches away from being a lot worse.”

The Crosscutters play in the short-season New York-Penn League and are based in Williamsport.