‘Bad News Bears’ actress, 20, killed in crash

Sammi Kraft
Sammi Kraft

LOS ANGELES — Sammi Kane Kraft, whose baseball skills earned her the role of a youth league pitcher in the 2005 remake of “The Bad News Bears,” has died in a Los Angeles car crash. She was 20.

Kraft was a passenger in an Audi that rear-ended a big rig and was struck by another car about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday on Interstate 10.

Her brother Frankie Kane said she was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Kraft was 13 when she was discovered on an LA baseball diamond and cast in her only film. She played the role originated by Tatum O’Neal in 1976.