Bees’ Roster Starting To Fill

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Twenty-four players have committed to the Burlington Bees for the upcoming Prospect League season, including eight NCAA Division I players.

The roster includes two players with local connections — pitcher Jacob Zahner of Burlington (Southeastern Community College) and infielder Kooper Schulte of New London (Central Arizona College).

Several players return from last season — pitcher Nick Tampa, infielder Jayden Hackbarth, outfielder Cedric Dunnwald and infielder Brandon Bickford.

Six open spots remain on the roster. The Bees open the season May 31 at home against the Quincy Gems.

A look at the roster:

PITCHERS

Ryan Donley (LHP, Oakland University) — Hasn’t pitched this season

Luke Fredrick (LHP, Clarke University) — 0-0, 3.00 ERA in 3 appearances

Chase Golden (RHP, Western Illinois) — 14.18 ERA in 18 appearances, 11 strikeouts in 13 ⅓ innings.

Dylan Haslett (RHP, Oakland University) — 10.61 ERA in 9 ⅓ innings.

Preston Kaufman (RHP, Benedictine University) — Hasn’t pitched this season.

Rem Maxwell (RHP, Georgia Southern) — Hasn’t pitched this season.

Aiden McGee (RHP, Minnesota State-Mankato) — 0-0, 3.00 ERA, 26 strikeouts in 18 innings

Jaden Siemer (RHP, Hanover College) — 0-4, 14.04 ERA, 17 strikeouts in 16 ⅓ innings.

Nick Tampa (LHP, Morton College) — 4.26 ERA in 3 appearances. Also plays the outfield, and is hitting .299 with 4 HRs. Hit .205 with the Bees last season, and pitched in 14 games.

Jacob Zahner (RHP, Southeastern Community College) — Hasn’t pitched this season.

CATCHERS

Mason Schwalbach (McHenry County College) — .408, 10 HRs, 57 RBIs

Ian Wolski (Hawaii Pacific) — .327, 1 HR, 13 RBIs

INFIELDERS

Brandon Bickford (Mount Mercy) — .240 with 2 HRs. Hit .250 with the Bees last season.

Jaden Hackbarth (McHenry County College) — .345, 2 HRs, 24 RBIs. Hit .247 with the Bees last season.

Connor Laeng (Concordia-Irvine) — .500 in 5 games.

Kooper Schulte (Central Arizona College) — .242 in 33 games.

Jake Schulz (Concordia-Irvine) — .219, 2 HRs, 10 RBIs.

Caleb Wulf (Southeastern Community College) — .394, 37 RBIs in 47 games.

OUTFIELDERS

Cedric Dunnwald (Mount Mercy) — Hit .200 in three games with the Bees last season.

Drew Gaskins (Oakland University) — 2023 high school graduate

Tanner Holland (Central Arizona College)

Will Mulflur (Iowa) — .000 in 7 games

Trenton Rice (Oakland University) — Hasn’t played this season.

Coy Sarsfield (Iowa) — .154 in 12 games

Photo: Infielder Jaden Hackbarth is one of the players returning to the Burlington Bees this season. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)

WIU 14, SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 4: Leathernecks’ Offense Erupts To Snap Losing Streak

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

MACOMB, Ill. — Tayler Sheriff figured it was time Western Illinois’ baseball team put on a show.

The Leathernecks did that in Saturday’s 14-4 win over South Dakota State, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Western Illinois (4-21 overall, 1-4 Summit League) snapped a 10-game losing streak and set itself up to win a crucial conference series with the Jackrabbits (7-17, 3-5).

“It felt good,” said Sheriff, the Leathernecks’ interim head coach. “It had been a long time. We had been scuffling a little bit. We had been in some games, we just had a hard time getting over the hump, just finishing a (win) or getting a big hit to win a game.”

The Leathernecks had suffered a 6-3 10-inning loss to the Jackrabbits on Friday, and Sheriff knew how important it was for his team to recover.

“I told the team that we had played a lot of tight games, and let’s just go out and leave no doubt tomorrow,” Sheriff said. “Just go explode and score a bunch of runs and pitch well.”

The Leathernecks had 12 hits and took advantage of 14 walks. Every Western Illinois starter reached base and scored a run.

Western Illinois scored five runs in the fourth inning to take a 6-1 lead, added two runs in the seventh after South Dakota State got to within 6-4, then ended a game with a six-run eighth inning that included eight consecutive walks.

“It took us a little while to get going,” Sheriff said. “We made some mistakes on the bases early that cost us opportunities, but we stayed with it. They gave us some stuff in the fourth, and in the eighth inning with the walks. But we just stayed with our approach at the plate. It just felt nice to blow it open and coast at the end and take the pressure off a little bit.”

Nick Mitchell drove in three runs for the Leathernecks. Derek Botalitto had three hits.

Tyler Kapraun (2-4) was the winning pitcher, scattering six hits over six innings. He walked four and struck out six.

“That’s been our message to our starters,” Sheriff said. “Our bullpen has struggled this year and we’ve let him some runs late. So we kind of challenged them a little bit, shake things up, say, hey, we need six innings to give us a chance.”

Brauer Taking ‘The Pulse’ Of The Prospect League As New Commissioner

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

David Brauer is trying to get to know everything about the Prospect League.

Brauer, the new commissioner of the 17-team summer baseball league for college players in the Midwest, has taken his first few weeks on the job to get, as he said, an idea of “the pulse” of the league.

“We’ve got 17 teams, 17 different markets,” Brauer said at Friday’s Burlington Bees/Friends of Community Field Winter Banquet at the Pzazz Events Center. “They vary from teams with minor-league backgrounds like the Bees, to teams that have always been in summer college leagues. There are new franchises, and teams that have been in the league for a while. So it’s really getting a vibe for what these markets are like, what the community support is, which obviously is tremendous.”

Brauer brings to the league a background in college athletics, having spent 10 years as assistant commissioner of the Summit League, an NCAA Division I conference that includes Western Illinois University. So he understands the challenges that his new league faces.

“We’re about player development, making a great experience for the players,” he said. “At the same time, these teams are businesses, so they have to make money. It’s about finding that intersection between the communities, the teams, and the players.

“Really, the biggest key for me is trying to take inventory on what the league has done, trying to get a feel for where we want to go, and then mix in some of the ideas I have from my experience working on the college side.”

Brauer knows how competitive summer baseball has gotten.

“When this league started back in the 1960s, there were maybe three or four leagues like it around the country,” he said. “Now there’s about 30 of varying levels, depending on what the leagues put into it.

“Ours is unique because we’re trying to give that professional experience. You know, a lot of our stadiums are either old minor league parks or very capable of hosting a minor league team. So that’s a big plus. It all boils down to recruiting.”

The Prospect League recently entered into an agreement with sports analytics firm Rapsodo to provide live in-game data to players. That kind of information, Brauer said, is important to players to take back to their college programs.

“The student-athletes, they’re our biggest customer,” he said. “Word of mouth is the best way to grow our league. They’ll go back to their campuses, talk to their teammates and their coaches.”

Brauer is also looking into name-image-likeness opportunities for players, as well as mental health programs during the season.

“I think all of that is critical,” he said. “It’s just like how you would sell a college program. ‘That’s why you should come here and here’s how you can benefit from it.’

“What I would like to see us go with this at some point is to really have a multi-pronged approach — the player development side, certainly the skill development, and off-the-field development. You really can utilize that summer time. There’s so many aspects to baseball that go beyond the field that can help a player develop, that we’d really like to be toward the forefront of that.”

The league added new teams in Jackson, Tennessee, and Marion, Illinois for this season. The variety of markets, Brauer said, could be a financial benefit to the entire league.

“If you’re a business in Burlington, you’re going to advertise with the Bees,” Brauer said. “I think from a national level, the diversity of our markets, with the fact that we span across seven states, the more exposure that we can get to showcase our players, I think that that can help the revenue side.

“There’s only so much to go around, let’s be realistic. Between the summer leagues and minor league baseball, it’s competitive. But I think if we can find those revenue sources that can help us to just supplement our teams, that’s huge at the end of the day.”

Photo: Prospect League commissioner David Brauer speaks during Friday’s Burlington Bees/Friends Of Community Field Winter Banquet at the Pzazz Events Center. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)