By Marie Villani-York

A Kingsbridge Little League coach punched a parent in the face in the middle of a baseball game at Cooney Grauer Field last week.

Witnesses say the father, angry that his son wasn’t being played, came onto the field and charged after the coach. Several people tried to intervene and calm the dad, but he kept persisting. The coach’s mother was among those caught up in the fray and was knocked to the ground.

That was the last straw for the coach, bystanders said. He cocked back and punched the parent in the head. The blow caused a cut and severe bleeding.

Police officers arrived on the scene along with an ambulance. Neither man was arrested in the incident and the father declined to press charges.

Kingsbridge Little League’s board of directors met the day after the game, on June 13, to discuss the matter. Chris Navarro, the league’s president, said the board decided to expel the player and his father from the league, but took no action against the coach.

“The coach did nothing wrong,” Mr. Navarro said. “The man kept following him.”

Mr. Navarro added that the coach is “tremendously sorry.”

Last October, a dispute between two coaches at a Riverdale Soccer Club game for 8- and 9-year-olds at Seton Park turned physical and parents and coaches brawled on the field. The league chose not to suspend either coach, but instituted new rules to keep parents on the opposite side of the field from teams and coaches.

At least one parent, Pamela Otto, whose husband Jeffrey Otto was the opposing team’s assistant coach, was not pleased with the KLL board’s decision.

She pulled her son out of the league, explaining that the coach, through his actions, set a bad example for her son and his teammates. Worse, she said, he did so without suffering any repercussions.

“I won’t tolerate it,” Ms. Otto said.