The president of a Fayette County youth baseball league yesterday disputed some of the allegations surrounding the arrest of a coach last week on criminal charges of offering to pay a player to hurt a teammate who has autism.

	Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette Eric Forsythe is president of the R.W. Clark Youth Baseball League in North Union Township. Click photo for larger image. Previous coverage Tee-ball coach charged in assault (7/16/05)

Eric Forsythe, who heads the R.W. Clark Youth Baseball League in North Union Township, said he was shocked when Mark Downs Jr., 27, of Dunbar was charged last Friday with bribing player Keith Reese, 7, with $25 to hit teammate Harry Bowers Jr., 9, in the face with a baseball to keep him from playing.

When hitting Bowers in the ear with a ball didn't keep him off the field, he intentionally hit him in the groin with another throw, state police charged.

Forsythe said that when he and eight other board members last month investigated the June 27 incident at the urging of Reese's mother, they were told that the alleged bribe was $5 and that Bowers was struck only in the head. The board could find no proof that the allegations were true.

Forsythe said other coaches in the league for boys and girls ages 5 through 8 told board members the ball that struck Bowers' left ear had glanced off his glove as the two Falcons teammates were warming up. Moreover, while the state police said Downs suggested that Bowers sit out the game after the incident, the board was told Downs and others urged him to play in the game. He sat down only after his mother, Jennifer Bowers, said he was too shaken up to do so.

Forsythe said numerous people reported that after the game Jennifer Bowers, Harry, and his brother and teammate, Brandon, got ice cream with other Falcons players and coaches, including Downs and his twin daughters, who play on the team. State police said a copy of a medical report showed the boy was taken to an emergency room, where he was treated for swollen red marks on his ear and groin but it does not indicate when the treatment was received.

The state police complaint said there had been ongoing arguments between Jennifer Bowers and Downs about her son not getting sufficient playing time -- all players are guaranteed three innings -- but Forsythe said he never heard that allegation until after the criminal charges were filed. The preseason, he noted, began April 1.

The complaint also said Jennifer Bowers told police that Downs looked for excuses not to play her son because he is not as talented as the other players. But Forsythe said Harry Bowers "isn't one of the best players on the team but he's not the worst." Forsythe said it was a close call but it was decided before the season to keep Bowers one year past eligibility in the league -- where coaches pitch or players hit off a tee -- rather than move him up to "minors."

"The story seemed off-key to begin with. It has become so exaggerated," Forsythe said, adding he wasn't offering a defense for the first-year head coach, whom he said he barely knows.

"If he did it, it would be a terrible thing and they cannot do enough to him for that -- but it has to be proven."

Also yesterday, Downs' attorney, Thomas W. Shaffer, said his client was innocent and the brouhaha was due to a "misunderstanding."

Shaffer and Forsythe both said Downs told them that several games before the one in question he was reprimanded by an umpire about venturing onto the field and had remarked to the entire team in jest that anyone on the team who hit the umpire with a line drive would get $25.

Forsythe said it was his understanding the joke was due to the fact that Downs and the umpire were friends.

Jennifer Bowers yesterday declined to discuss the issue, other than to say her son was still confused over the ordeal.

"He feels really bad," she said.

She referred a reporter to the Fayette County district attorney's office.

Downs was charged with criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault, corruption of minors, criminal conspiracy to commit simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. He was released from jail on an unsecured bond.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 28.