Summer baseball notes: Bethany Bulls still adapting to Jayhawk League
The Bethany (Okla.) Bulls haven’t exactly followed up last year’s spectacular NBC World Series with a bang. After taking sixth place in the tournament last year, Bethany — one of two new additions to the Jayhawk League in 2015 — has struggled with a 3-11 record.
The team, in it’s third season of playing at the college level, is still adjusting to the daily schedule and sheer competitiveness of its new league.
“They’ve been coming out to the ball field every night, play a game, and they’re expected to play at a high standard,” said Tim Braaten, who created the team as an American Legion club six summers ago.
“There’s usually that one or two or three teams that you say, ‘OK, we can go get 3 or 4, or sweep this team.’ In this league, there’s no teams like that. Every weekend, it’s a tough team, looking at their lineup, whether it be pitching or hitting, they’ve got (NCAA Division I) guys or NAIA All-Americans that you face everyday.”
Playing almost every day hasn’t helped the Bulls either. In the past, the Bulls would play four days a week — Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday — and the other three would serve as rest days or for light practice.
“It’s a grind. It’s minor league baseball. You play everyday,” Braaten said, “The boys aren’t old by any means, but I hear them whining and complaining in the dugout about their bodies being tired which I definitely understand.”
Braaten and The Bulls joined the league this summer after finding an interest in it last year. Rick Twyman, coach of the Wellington Heat, reached out to Braaten last season to schedule some non-league matchups with the Bulls, and that led to Braaten eventually reaching out for a spot in the Jayhawk League.
The Bulls started their season with a four-game series with the Heat, the defending Jayhawk League champion, and were swept. But teams in the Jayhawk League haven’t counted the Bulls out yet.
“Tim Braaten’s a good coach, and a good owner. He’s got quite a bit of talent,” Twyman said. “They’re going to be a big asset in the Jayhawk. It’s just tough, first year, coming into the Jayhawk League, I’m sure it’s a little bit tough, but he’s going to figure it out, I have no doubt in my mind.”
Wellington strong again — Another season, another smooth start to the Jayhawk League season for the Wellington Heat. After starting last year on a massive win-streak, the Heat sits atop the league with an 8-3 record.
Those starts have been big for Twyman in the past, and it’s no different this year.
“If you can get hot early, it’s tough for teams to make up ground in the Jayhawk League,” Twyman said. “I don’t know why it’s happened the last two years, but like I said, our guys, the thing that we preach is to come out and grind for nine innings, and give us everything you’ve got.… Then let the chips fall the way that they fall.”
The Heat started the season by sweeping the Bulls in four games, then dropping a home series to Liberal — which took the lead in the North on Saturday night. In its most recent series, Wellington won its first three games of a four-game series against the Derby Twins.
Though there’s been a bit of a rift between the Heat and the Twins in past years, it was a clean series. Twyman says that “rivalry” doesn’t have — and really never had — much substance.
“I wouldn’t even call them a rivalry,” Twyman said. “Maybe because the towns are so close, it’s drummed up. But we don’t change anything. Me and the coaches try to tell these guys, ‘It doesn’t matter who we play.’ We just come out ready to go.”
This story was originally published June 20, 2015 at 10:34 PM with the headline "Summer baseball notes: Bethany Bulls still adapting to Jayhawk League."