A Passaic County judge approved a $14.5 million settlement Wednesday to a Little League player left brain-damaged by a ball hit with an aluminum bat.

Steven Domalewski, then 12, of Wayne, was pitching in a 2006 youth baseball game when a line drive struck him in the chest. He went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing, and his brain was deprived of oxygen for 15 to 20 minutes before he was resuscitated. Now 19, he is nearly blind, his speech is impaired and he is confined to a wheelchair.