Is this an appropriate lede for a high school baseball story?

The Only High School We Cover's baseball season and 10-game winning streak ended when league most valuable player Joe Jones flew out with the bases loaded in a 9-8 loss to Another High School in a first-round playoff game Wednesday.

The issue is -- is it right to mention the player who made the last out in the lede of a high school baseball story? I think it is because it is news.

This should not be a discussion of leading with something else in this 9-8 game. I just want feedback on is this appropriate. This also has nothing to do with Little League.

Player is a senior, but that should not change the equation.

He was three for four before making the final out, which should also not change the equation.

 

You would have used his name if the ball went over the wall, right?

 

Well said. Of course the name should be mentioned.

 

In today's Podunk Press...

Not crazy about it, and I am even less crazy about mentioning an error in the headline.

 

I am curious about the reaction to that headline and angle about the missed fly ball. It might be too early for that now.

 

In a 9-8 game, I imagine Another High did more to win it than My High did to lose it. Horrible lede.

 

Maybe so, but if Another High isn't the school your paper covers, I can understand the need to lead with something on My High. If it's the end of a 10-game winning streak, I might lead with some sort of My High scene-setter or something.

 

Not knowing how the other team scored the 9 runs, I would probably not use the the last out dude unless I talked to him and had quotes from him about it.

 

You have to write it from the perspective of the team YOU COVER.
Nothing at all wrong with using the name, especially since you're likely going to mention his three other at-bats somewhere else in the story.

Not sure if it's lede-worthy or not because I don't know the details of the game. But the fact that the team's best player, who was already 3 for 3, came up in a one-run game with the bases loaded in the last inning definitely needs to be in the story somewhere.

 

I see no choice but to lead with him as long as you're not pinning the loss on him.

 

It's not necessarily inappropriate, it's just unoriginal. Why write such a boring, AP-style lede when you could go with something more interesting that also wouldn't seem to blame the loss on the kid?

"League MVP Joe Jones had another fine day at the plate with three hits on Saturday, but when his ninth-inning, bases-loaded drive settled into the left fielders glove, The Only School We Cover's season, not to mention its 10-game winning streak, ended with a 9-8 loss to Another School in a first-round playoff game."