By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
Every manager of a summer baseball league has to build pipelines to college programs to help fill a roster.
Burlington Bees manager Owen Oreskovich has one pipeline that extends approximately 4,100 miles.
That’s the approximate distance between Community Field and Hawaii Pacific University, an NCAA Division II program that has provided players to the Bees the last three summers.
Three players from the program — pitcher Shea Blanchard, infielder Skyler Agnew and outfielder Cooper Donlin — are with the Bees this season. They follow pitcher Steven Escarcega, who was with the Bees in 2022, and catcher Ian Wolski, who was with the team last year.
“It’s awesome they want to come all of the way out here, which has been a big thing for me,” Oreskovich said. “Like Wolski last year, I don’t think he had been to the Midwest in his life. It’s awesome that they want to come out here and play baseball in this league, get experience with these guys, and see a little different part of the country that they’ve never seen in their life.”
It’s a relationship Oreskovich has built with Hawaii Pacific coach Dane Fujinaka that has made the difference.
“He texted me in October, when we started talking about players coming here,” Oreskovich said. “He said he loves the connection, loves what he gets from the guys when they come back. He has nothing but good things to say. And I really appreciate that.”
That was the same message Fujinaka gave to his players.
“He said guys get sent here all of the time, they come back better,” Donlin said. “And I guess that’s what Coach wants to see.”
“He said it’s a good league, and he wants us to go out to different areas, see different calibers of pitching,” Agnew said. “A lot of good players come here, and he said it would be a good way for us to step up our games more and come back.”
“He says Coach O is super cool, and I took his word for it,” Blanchard said. “I found that out right away. First day, he showed me he is a super cool dude.”
The three players come from different backgrounds. Blanchard, a freshman this season, is from Laguna Beach, California. Agnew, a junior, is from Riverside, California. Donlin has Midwest roots — he’s from Plymouth, Michigan, and played his first two seasons at Oakland University.
The chance to see somewhere new is what drew the players to come to the Bees.
“My dad and I talk about this a lot — baseball takes me a lot of places,” Blanchard said. “It will show you parts of the world you never thought you’d go to. I never thought I would be in Burlington, Iowa. You know what I mean? I think being in a different area is cool. It’s cool seeing how different people live.”
“I thought it was a great opportunity to get back to the mainland, go somewhere different other than California, because we play our games in either California or Hawaii,” Agnew said. “I thought it would be nice to get out of those states, venture out a little more, experience a different kind of environment.”
For Donlin, it was a chance to get back to the style of play he knew.
“I’m used to baseball on the mainland, because I’ve played it my whole life,” he said. “At Hawaii, it’s a little more speed-based. Here, it’s a little more fundamental. So what I want to bring is my speed, and the fundamentals.”
Donlin entered the NCAA’s transfer portal after his two seasons at Oakland, and it was easy to choose where he was going next.
“Basically I got an offer I couldn’t refuse,” he said, smiling.
The three players have had mixed results in the first couple of weeks of the season.
Donlin is batting .318 and leads the Bees with eight runs scored and seven hits — he scored three runs in the Bees’ first win of the season on May 30. Agnew is batting .200 in four games. Blanchard is 0-2 in two starts with a 14.29 ERA.
“It’s just getting comfortable in your own skin,” Blanchard said. “First outing, I was a little shaky. Second outing, it felt a lot better, a lot more grounded here. It felt like home.”
“I struggled a little bit at the end of this (college) season,” Agnew said. “I came out here wanting to improve on the things I was struggling in. I’m just taking it day by day.”
Agnew said having his teammates with him made the adjustment to a new team easier.
“I was kind of nervous coming here,” Agnew said. “The ‘not knowing’ is scary. But I was confident with having two of my good friends come with me. I didn’t really know what I was getting into out here. It was nice to see what it had to offer.”
Blanchard said Hawaii Pacific’s roster was “a melting pot” — the Sharks had players from Georgia, Washington, Utah, Texas and Japan as well as from Hawaii and California.
He’s finding a similar experience with the Bees.
“I like to ask questions a lot,” Blanchard said. “I’m a curious cat. I’ll ask guys about their experiences, what they do, how old they are, what they’ve been through, because I value that. Hearing someone’s experiences, that’s educational. It’s cool to meet people with different experiences.”
“I think that’s the best part of this.”
Photo: Cooper Donlin leads the Burlington Bees in runs scored and hits this season. He is one of three players from Hawaii Pacific on this season’s roster. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
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