One of the diamonds at Edinburgh Sports Park is empty Friday.
Noah Crenshaw | Daily Journal
By Elissa Maudlin | Daily Journal
emaudlin@dailyjournal.net
For The Republic
EDINBURGH — A little over a year ago, an Edinburgh softball game ended in injury for a child spectator. Now, the town may get pulled into a lawsuit for negligence and has — for now — cut ties with the association.
The Edinburgh Town Council on May 27 voted not to allow Indiana USSSA and its affiliates to use its sports facility until further notice. Indiana USSSA is part of the United States Specialty Sports Association, a multi-sport sanctioning body which creates, promotes and organizes recreational and competitive sports programs, including baseball and softball.
The council decision came after a civil lawsuit was filed in Johnson Superior Court 2 against the league for alleged negligence after a ball fractured a child’s skull, among other injuries.
The town may be pulled into the lawsuit after the court agreed to allow the plaintiff to add the town of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Parks & Recreation as defendants in the case, according to court documents. The entities had not been formally added as of press time.
The council’s vote to suspend Indiana USSSA from the sports complex was 3-1. Council president Ryan Piercefield and council members Miriam Rooks and Debbie Buck voted to suspend the league, while council member Sherri Sweet voted against. Council member Michael Bryant was absent.
Indiana USSSA and the town have worked together for over 25 years, according to a social media post by Tim Foster, the league’s state director. When the Daily Journal reached out to Foster for additional comments, he said that Indiana USSSA is “saddened” and “frustrated” by the decision.
“We’re not only saddened by their decision, but also frustrated by the lack of explanation and the timing, which is just before two major team events,” he said.
The town council decided this because Indiana USSSA alleges in the lawsuit that the town is fully or partially responsible for the minor’s injuries, said Dustin Huddleston, town attorney. Since the legal action is still pending, Huddleston spoke for the council on the matter.
The lawsuit
Plaintiff Amanda Koers sued Indiana USSSA LLC for damages on Jan. 20, after her child was injured watching a softball game in April 2024. She alleges that her 7-year-old daughter was hit in the head by a home run ball, court documents show.
The 7-year-old allegedly sustained injuries including a fractured skull, an epidural hematoma and a traumatic brain injury. It has “caused her physical, mental, psychosocial and emotional pain and suffering and permanent injury and damage,” according to court documents.
Her treatment, including surgery, has cost the Koers money, and she may require additional care with more medical expenses, the documents say.
The lawsuit alleges that Indiana USSSA was “careless and negligent” by not establishing or enforcing rules for where spectators could and couldn’t sit, selecting a tournament site that did not have sufficient fields of the proper size, assigning teams to play on a field that were not the proper distance apart, not warning spectators of the risks of sitting behind the outfield fence and more.
However, Indiana USSSA rebutted that the alleged injuries came from the Koers’ own “comparative negligence.” The organization alleged that the Koers knowingly and voluntarily assumed the risk of injury since it is incidental to a softball game and the Koers were responsible for selecting their seat location, among other statements in the court documents.
The league also attributed the child’s alleged injuries in full or in part to other non-parties that hadn’t been joined in the lawsuit, including the town of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Parks & Recreation.
On April 4, Amanda Koers asked the court to grant her leave to file an amended complaint to add the town of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Parks & Recreation as defendants in the case to make negligence allegations against them too, according to court documents. The motion was granted a few days later on April 7, 2025, according to online court records.
The town had not officially been named as a defendant in the lawsuit, so the town hadn’t filed a cross-claim as of May 29, Huddleston said.
The Daily Journal contacted Amanda Koers’ attorney, Teresa Todd, who declined to comment for the story.
The amended complaint has not yet been filed as of Monday. The case is still pending.
The response
Foster took to Facebook to state his thoughts on the council’s decision. He said Indiana USSSA had to redraw two events “after being thrown a curveball” by losing access to the Edinburgh Sports Complex. Although he doesn’t understand the town council’s decision, he said he respects it. Foster also said he was blindsided since he allegedly found out from a social media video and the parks director.
Huddleston said the council didn’t inform Foster about the vote before the May 27 council meeting because no decision had been made until that meeting.
Foster believes Indiana USSSA brings value to the Columbus/Edinburgh community, saying he received multiple calls with questions from local businesses, like hotels, who he said were also affected by the decision.
As for the future, Foster said that Indiana USSSA is doing away with all future events in the town.
“It was a great 25+ years running there,” he said in his post. “I wish Daniel [Teter, parks and cemetery superintendent] and his staff the best of luck.”
— Claims made in filing a lawsuit represent only one side of the case and may be contested in later court action.
