Lorenzo Ricketts, former Free State High first baseman, stopped by his old high school to see his ex-teammates play Friday and was curious about the absence of his good friend Ben Wilson.

Ricketts decided to see for himself why Wilson wasn’t at Free State’s games, so he went to his house.

“Zo stopped by and said there were all sorts of rumors, including one that Ben got arrested,” Wilson’s mother, Debra Wilson, said while chuckling. “I said, ‘No, he’s sick. You can come in and see for yourself.’ At that point, Ben was lying on the living room floor.”

Two hours later, Wilson was in the emergency room being diagnosed with appendicitis, his mother said.

“He had his appendix removed this morning, and they want to keep him through the night,” Debra said Friday. “He was very ill and throwing up (Thursday). I thought I could just give him some Gatorade and be fine. But it was getting worse instead of getting better. He wasn’t complaining about pain, so I didn’t even think about it being his appendix. He was vomiting and vomiting, so I took him to the emergency room about 9 o’clock. He came through it just fine, and the good news is they told him he would be recovered in a week, so he’ll be able to play baseball this summer.”

Ben Wilson plans to play baseball next season at Garden City Community College.

Debra Wilson contacted the Journal-World on Friday after hearing of wild speculation about her son’s absence and wanted to set the record straight.

“I didn’t want anyone thinking like that about one of Coach (Mike) Hill’s players. He runs such a great program,” she said of the coach who in the past five years has had more than 20 All-Sunflower League selections, nine players named first- or second-team all-state and has sent more than 20 players to college baseball. “Ben was just devastated he couldn’t play.”

The Firebirds’ season ended one game shy of advancing to the state tournament in Wichita with an 8-1 loss to cross-town rival Lawrence High, which relied on clutch pitching and timely hitting to advance.

Free State’s 16-5 record surpassed expectations for a team that had lost key contributors Travis Blankenship (all-state), Scottt Heitshusen (all-state), Travis Ice (second-team all-state), Brett Lisher (all-state), Robby Price (all-state, 2005-06), Ricketts (all-state, 2005) and John Sneegas from the state championship team.