It was supposed to be a normal Tuesday for Southern Miss' third baseman Drey Barrett, who had just enjoyed a day off.
The Golden Eagles just completed a sweep of Louisiana and extended their winning streak to 12 games, and as he began to prepare for practice, panic took over for the true freshman – he discovered that his glove was missing.
"Of course, I went into a little bit of a panic," Barrett said. "I was running around trying to find it. I realized that the last time I saw it was on Sunday, and I kind of threw it off to the side after the game. I usually go put it in the dugout after, but I kind of like left it in the middle of the field. I started thinking of things that could have happened.
"There were a lot of kids on the field. I just assumed someone took it after."
He got through practice using Jace Norton's backup glove and soon found himself staying at the baseball facility until 8 p.m., frantically searching.
"Norton was like, ‘What are you using that glove for?’, and I told him I didn't know where my glove was at."
Norton quickly replied, "You lost your glove!?' I explained the situation to him and he said to post on Instagram or Twitter or something. I was trying to wait as long as possible before I had to do that.’”
Barrett even messaged his team's group chat asking if anyone was pranking him, but still no luck. He was dreading having to do it, but he had no choice but to resort to social media.
"I was thinking after I posted it, what if the coaches had it the whole time and were going to give it to me tomorrow and make me freak out a little bit.
"I did think somebody pranked me. I did text in our baseball group chat, 'before I post this on Twitter, is anybody just pulling a prank on me?' Of course, they all started to laugh at me."
With no other choice, Barrett posted, "If someone grabbed my glove after the game Sunday, please send me a DM."
Naturally, social media went crazy with his post.
"I bit the bullet," Barrett said. "A bunch of people retweeted, quoted-tweeted, and put funny things in the comments about ULL and things like that."
Barrett eventually received a direct message, and a meeting was arranged for 10 p.m. Tuesday in a Target parking lot.
"I called my mom because she was worried about it," Barrett said. "She said, 'Don't go by yourself, there are crazy people.' I didn't think this guy was crazy, but there was two managers here with me that were helping me look for it. They rode with me."
Come to find out a 7-year-old fan grabbed his glove and took it home, and was even taking ground balls in his backyard with it. In exchange for his glove, Barrett gave the young fan a new Southern Miss hat.
"I kind of felt bad," Barrett said. "It was a little kid. I didn't want him to feel bad. He didn't mean anything by it. He just found a glove and thought it was really cool.
"I'm not upset about it or anything like that. I'm just glad I got it…You will never see another post on social media about me losing my glove. It will stay by my side."
No. 19 Southern Miss will face No. 22 Troy this weekend for the final regular season with first pitch on Thursday set for 6 p.m.
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