Head to Head, now teammates…

Posted on 10. Aug, 2009 by Corey in All, Dayton Dragons Baseball, General Baseball.

Before they were selected as members of the Cincinnati Reds organization, many of the current Dayton Dragons players faced off against one another, either in high school or in college. When I walked around the clubhouse asking each player to remember facing different guys it brought up lots of memories and good times from the past. Although the players from Venezuela, Mexico and the Dominican Republic did not attend school in the states, they sometimes face one another in Winter League Ball in their respective countries.

- On April 4, 2007, Curtis Partch (Merced Community College) and Mark Serrano (Cyprus Community College) pitched against each other at San Luis Obispo in California. Serrano started and went 3.1 innings of two-hit ball with one earned run, earning the victory. Partch pitched in relief in the ninth inning allowing four hits and three earned runs.

- In the 2009, College World Series Super Regional, Serrano faced off against Arizona State and the Reds No. 1 draft pick Mike Leake. Serrano started the game and suffered his first loss of the season, despite pitching well. He went 8.1 innings, scattering eight hits and allowing three earned runs while striking out 13. Leake was just a bit better, going the distance (nine innings) and struck out 15 while allowing five hits and one run.

- Earlier in the 2009 season, Serrano and Oral Roberts took on Cal State Fullerton and his current Dragons teammate Josh Fellhauer. “I didn’t pitch too well that day,” Serrano said. “I allowed a few runs in relief and remember hitting a bunch of guys.” Serrano relieved the starter in the first inning, and went on to throw 6.2 innings, allowing six runs, four earned. He also struck out nine, two of which were Fellhauer. “He got me twice,” Fellhauer said. “But I did manage a single off of him and my team won the game.”

- Fellhauer was also a teammate of Reds 1st Draft Pick Mike Leake on Team USA for the Junior National Team.

- Alexis Oliveras played against Jose Castro, who is currently the shortstop for the Carolina Mudcats. “He was a few years older than me, but I remember playing against him,” Oliveras said.

- Oliveras was also a teammate on a summer league team with Sarasota Reds and former Dayton Dragons third baseman Neftali Soto in Puerto Rico. The two were only about 15 years old at the time.

- As a 12-year-old, Josh Ravin played on a traveling summer league team called the Badgers. One of his teammates was Matt Valaika, a 2009 Reds draftee who has not signed yet. Matt’s older brother is former Dragon Chris Valaika who is currently in Louisville playing for the Bats.

- Dragons reliever Chase Ware attended Olive Branch High School in Horn Lake, Mississippi. One of their biggest rivals was Grenada High School who had former Dayton Dragons pitcher Terrell Young on the staff.

- Also while at Olive Branch, Ware played against former Dragon and current Carolina Mudcats shortstop Zach Cozart. Upon graduating from high school, Ware attended the University of Mississippi where he was a teammate of Cozart’s. Ware then transfered from Ole Miss to Arkansas State, where he again played against Cozart several times.

- Both being from Canada, Mark James and Jordan Wideman had the chance to play together on the Ontario Blue Jays travel team. Wideman was just 16, and James was 18.

- Former Houston Cougar and current Dragons reliever Donnie Joseph faced former Dragon and current Sarasota Reds pitcher Mace Thurman in High School. Both pitchers are from Texas.

- Dragons Outfielder Byron Wiley played his high school baseball in Texas before attending Kansas State University to play collegiate ball in the Big 12 Conference. While in high school at Tomball High School, he faced Mace Thurman. When Wiley went on to attend Kansas State, he would again face Thurman who was at Baylor University.

- Wiley was a high school teammate of Reds minor leaguer Carson Kainer at Tomball High School in Houston, Texas. The two would then be on opposite sides during Big 12 play when Kainer attended the University of Texas.

- Also on that University of Texas team that Wiley and KSU faced was Louisville Bats and former Dragon Drew Stubbs and Carolina Mudcats pitcher and former Dragon Joseph Krebs. “I can remember getting a hit off Krebs,” Wiley said.

- Andrew Bowman has a list of five current or former Dragons teammates that he played against while he attended both Nebraska and Arizona State. Wiley, Scott Gaffney, Krebs and Thurman have all been in the opposing dugouts when he pitched. But the one he remembers the most is Dave Sappelt when he was at Coastal Carolina. “They came into our place to play a series. This guy walks in with a huge head of hair, skin tight pants, extremely high socks and chains and things all over his arms. We all looked at each other like ‘Who is this guy?’” Bowman said about Sappelt. “He went on to just crush us at the plate and on the base paths that series.”

- Andrew Means was a two-sport athlete at Indiana University, playing both baseball and football. He remembers going to play Michigan State during the spring. The catcher for the Spartans that day was his former Dragons teammate Kyle Day. “I remember running all over him stealing a bunch of bases,” Means said. “When we both got drafted by the Reds, I let him hear that a bunch.”

- Also during Big 10 play, Means and the Hooisers faced Scott Gaffney, while he was playing shortstop and pitching for the Penn State Nittany Lions.

- Gaffney has a pretty good memory of his college days and players he faced that he later on became teammates with. He told me while playing Oral Roberts, Kahaulelio took him deep in a game. He also pitched against Day, getting him to go 0-for-2 at the plate. Gaffney also remembers playing shortstop while facing some pretty good pitching. “Matt Klinker (former Dragon and current Carolina Mudcats pitcher) struck me out three times. Krebs got me to fan (strikeout) twice but I did manage a single off of him,” Gaffney said. He also remembers seeing Bowman on the hill, but was not in the lineup that day.

All were once rivals, but now teammates in the Reds organization and good friends.