REVVING UP: Summer baseball tryouts set for Saturday morning
Within just a few weeks, the sounds of Bartlesville Doenges Ford Indians baseball will ring out into the skies above Rigdon Field at Bill Doenges Memorial Stadium.
The journey begins this Saturday with the first practice/tryouts for the Indians (19-and-younger) and Braves (17-and-younger), which are affiliated with the local American Legion James H. Teel Post 105.
Starting time for Saturday’s gathering is 10 a.m. at Rigdon Field. Ending time is tentatively 1 p.m.
John Pannell is overseeing the program and serving as the Indians’ head coach for the 12th season (2003-10, 2020-23). Pannell has been weaved into the tapestry of the program’s tradition — as a youngster in the 1980s and into the 1990s he watch the team; he made the team as a player in the early 1990s; he served as an assistant coach for the Braves and the Indians, coached the Braves and then became the Indians’ head coach.
He’s also served as an tournament director when he wasn’t coaching and contributed in many other ways.
Pannell guided the 2022 Indian squad to one of its best seasons in the several years (24-14-1).
Indian fans will be happy to know a large wave of veteran talent returns this season. Some of the collegians Pannell expects to be back are Haden Fiddler, Jace Thompson, Matt Winters, Harrison Clark, Cole Hancock, Hayden Catlin and Kaeden Young.
Several of these players were part of college programs this past spring. Some of them include — Fiddler (NEO A&M), Thompson (Coffeyville CC), Clark (Allen CC) and Winters (Carl Albert State), Pannell said.
The potential of several high school returnees also will help boost the team’s competitive quality.
Pannell said one of his greatest rewards in working with the baseball players is watching them develop into college-level players. A couple of the ones he recalled from his early years as coach included Bryan Kayser and Drew Phillips, both of who were selected in the baseball draft. Phillips, who had been a record-setting player at Northwestern Oklahoma, checked in with a promising rookie league season in the Cincinnati Reds organization. He was invited back the next year for spring training but it didn’t work out.
Ryan Jones, a Bartlesville Legion player from the past few years, is headed from junior college to Alabama A&M, Pannell noted, with a touch of pride in his voice.
The Indians are set to compete in early June in a tournament at Fort Smith, Ark.
The Indians have joined a new college league and are set to be one of the regional hosts in the Stan Musial World Series playoffs. The 64th Annual Glen Winget Memorial Tournament is set for late June through July 2 and will feature 12 teams, Pannell said.
Since 1959, the Winget tourney has taken place every summer except for 1963. The 2007 Winget tourney lasted just two days prior to being flooded out.
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: REVVING UP: Summer baseball tryouts set for Saturday morning
