An argument that began during a softball tournament game in central Florida escalated at a local restaurant as 20 or more customers started a brawl that sent one man to the hospital with a stab wound, officials said.
A witness at the suburban Orlando Hooters restaurant, who asked not to be named, told WFTV he was in the outside bar area where the fight began at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday.
There had been an on-field altercation earlier in the day at the Orlando World Softball Tournament. The two teams involved chose the same restaurant for dinner, the witness said.
“They just so happened to meet up here at Hooters, unexpected,” the witness said. “(Both teams) were eating and then, basically, it continued to escalate and what not, carried on from there.”
The Orange County Sheriff's Office said 20 or more people were involved in the fight, but the witness said the main conflict was between eight people.
“For the most part, it was those six players from one team, versus the two other players from another team,” he said.
The 34-year-old stabbing victim, who was not identified, was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the sheriff’s office said.
Investigators did not say if any arrests were made, or if charges were pending.
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