Because of the renovation going on at the Kiefer High School’s athletic facilities, they’ve had to play all their games on the road, but the Kiefer baseball team has gained a lot of experience and bonding time during its summer schedule.
After a game at Beggs on Monday, June 19, the results were so secondary that Trojans coach Sheldon Fairchild wasn’t even sure what the score of the game was. Because it didn’t really matter.
“It went real well,” Fairchild said of the game. “We got a lot of young guys, I think we had 19 guys go and probably eight of them are incoming freshmen. We started at 6, got finished at 8:30, and then they had watermelon for us, so it was pretty neat. Our varsity bunch looked very good. Our other bunch has some work to do, but you can tell it’s just because they’re young. That’s the neat thing about the summer, you can give them the experience, and it won’t hurt you.”
That’s what this summer league has been all about.
“We kind of kept score, but after a while, I’m not worried about the score, I’m just worried about, ‘Are we doing the fundamental things right? Or are we in the right spot?’” Fairchild said. “There are some things that defensively would have helped our pitchers out, that we didn’t do. There were some things that our pitchers – it’s not about throwing multiple pitches, it’s about, ‘Can we hit a spot with a fastball?’ And then (at bat), putting the ball in play and not striking out.”
With multiple games each against Beggs and Okmulgee, Kiefer’s summer baseball schedule has been more low-key than some other, bigger schools in the area. Also, they have played all road games due to the construction out at the baseball and softball fields.
“With Beggs and Okmulgee, they’re close, it doesn’t cost us anything because we do the umpiring,” Fairchild said. “Whereas, I think Sapulpa and them play in the Red Dirt League, and it costs you. We play all our games away this summer for the simple fact that we got construction everywhere, so things are happening at a fast pace and I think it’ll pay off in a couple of years.”
The Trojans’ final summer game is on Tuesday, June 27 at Dewar.
“Probably the toughest team we’ll play all summer, because they’ve been to the state tournament twice,” Fairchild said of the Dragons, who went 29-7 and reached the Class A state semifinals this past season. “They’re smaller (size school) but they got some cats that can play.”
Coming off a fairly successful 2023 season in which the Trojans went 19-13 and reached the Class 3A Area playoffs, the 2024 version will feature a lot of younger players, including several incoming freshmen. With only two seniors, it will be an interesting mix, and Fairchild has started the process of having them all buy in to the team concept now.
“We’ve been very big on, ‘Quit worrying about what’s best for you, worry about what’s best for us,’” Fairchild said. “It’s just plain and simple. ‘Do something for the team.’ That’s what we’ve tried to focus on this summer, and just getting better at every aspect. We are extremely young. We only have two seniors next year, so we’ll be very young. Only two seniors, a pretty decent group of juniors and sophomores, but we got a big group of freshmen, so the majority of our team is going to be freshmen. I need them to get game experience and get better quick.”
That’s why the summer league is so helpful, so that all those freshmen can get some game action against other schools’ varsity competition.
“They’re coming from junior high, so it’s a little bit of a step-up,” Fairchild said. “And a lot of our guys do multiple things, so it’s a little crazy in the summer, you got basketball going, football, and then baseball, so we just got to go as many times as we can and just try to get better. They need just the reps – hitting, pitching, fielding, understanding situations is a big deal. Some of them, that’s where they get lost.”
Keeping with the team concept, Fairchild declined to highlight any players who have distinguished themselves the most or taken big strides during the summer schedule. It’s all about the collective effort and building chemistry.
“They’re all improving and that’s all we can ask,” he said. “We’ve gotten better since the first time we played.”
Fairchild has been deploying a bunch of different pitchers in each game, just trying to get as many of them into real-game situations each time out.
“We’re trying to throw multiple pitchers every time we go play,” he said. “Instead of throwing one guy until he gets his pitch count, we mainly threw guys two innings or one inning. We need guys to experience game-time on the mound. Throwing a bullpen is good, but we need them to get their feet wet. That’s where we’re at this summer.”
This will all pay off next spring, as the experience gained during these summer games will show up in their performance once the games really count.
