BILLINGS - A Billings girl is recovering after she was hit in the head with a foul ball at a Mustangs game.
Quick work by the paramedics along with doctors and nurses helped her through the night.
She's home and recovering and the family is grateful to the emergency responders.
A foul ball off the bat of a lefthanded-hitting Great Falls player hit 8-year-old Sarafina Moots in the head on Wednesday night.
"So it's just a line drive down the third base line," Erin Moots, Sarafina's mom said about the foul ball in the top of the 2nd inning. "And it just went straight into her head up here. Her grandpa was able to put his glove up a little bit to kind of deflect it from hitting her straight on which helps, then because it just kind of grazed the side of her head there."
Doctors and nurses checked on her through the night and early morning and released her Thursday.
"She has a 5.8 millimeter little blood spot on her upper right side of her brain," Erin Moots said. "And if it would have been eight millimeters or above we would have been sent to Salt Lake."
The Moots family appreciates the medical help and the support.
"The staff at the hospital and Becky the EMT, top-notch," said Michael Moots, Serfina's father. "Couldn't ask for anything better in this community, just incredible people."
Serafina's grandfather contacted EMT Becky Biggins who visited and read to her in the hospital.
"Normally we would give them the book bag right in the incident or right after," said Andy Ekblad, Billings firefighter. "Becky kind of went above and beyond for this one which was pretty cool."
It's all part of the Billings fire department's bookbag program.
"It's designed to kind of help them through a stressful time and comfort them," Ekblad said.
"What do you think of Becky?" Michael asked.
"Awesome," Sarafina answered.
"Becky is awesome, isn't she?" Michael said.
Sarafina's grandpa and her dad always bring baseball mitts to the games for safety.
Many major and minor league ballparks started extending netting a few years ago. That varies from ballpark to ballpark and the city of Billings and salt netting when Dehler Park was built in 2008 and Grandpa Ron Spence has new plans for season tickets next season.
"Grandpa says he's going to buy seats behind the netting," Michael Moots said.
They will watch her closely for a couple of days and say Sarafina will be fine for the third grade in the fall.
"Quite the story to tell when she goes back to school," Erin Moots said.
