A-K Valley baseball standouts get taste of college game with Butler Blue Sox

The Butler Blue Sox field one of the youngest teams in the Tri-State Summer Collegiate League at Pullman Park. Despite their youth, the Blue Sox are picking up steam and swinging hot sticks as the season progresses.

Valley News Dispatch Baseball Player of the Year Justin Brannagan, who graduated from Deer Lakes this year, has been a part of Butler’s success and sees the team’s progress.

“We started out a little rocky, but we’re finding our bats,” Brannagan said. “Now we’re starting to get a lot of hits and score runs. I think we came around pretty quickly. And I would say at a good time.”

The Blue Sox entered the season with just three returning players from last season. Most of the roster is players who will be freshmen in college this season.

Dan Helgert started coaching the Blue Sox three seasons ago, and his goal is to get upcoming college students at-bats and pitching experience at the next level.

“What I really wanted to do was get some guys that have zero college experience and kind of use this as a get-ready program for them going to college,” Helgert said. “That’s why I do have a lot of young guys on the team.”

Helgert said that with a mostly new roster, there wasn’t as much team chemistry at first. That has changed already.

“We’re starting to get there,” Helgert said. “The bats are coming alive, we’re putting up runs, and I told the guys that we got to trust the process this year because 90% of the guys are coming back next year, and that was a big goal to have these guys for two or three years. As far as meshing together, it was a slow process, which I knew it was going to be, but now these guys are really tight.”

The Blue Sox have scored more than eight runs in back-to-back games as their bats are starting to heat up. Nevertheless, the team’s success didn’t happen overnight. The Blue Sox had to adjust to the college level.

“It was a big adjustment, and those kids are unbelievable,” Brannagan said. “Even though you know you’re a good pitcher or a good hitter, there are some kids that just have some nasty stuff. Their fastball is coming in at 85 and they’re just throwing off a 75 mph slider. It’s just a lot of different things that you see that you would normally not see in a high school game.”

Brannagan had a productive season last year, striking out 53 in 49 innings with a 1.29 ERA. Brannagan also batted .300 and will play at Westminster next season.

Other A-K Valley players on the Blue Sox are Jake Thimons from Deer Lakes and Tanner Nulph, Jett Slepak, Seth Helgert and Trent Bielak from Highlands. From Valley, the team has Ben Aftanas and John Luke Bailey. Deer Lakes grad Andrew Bokulich and Burrell grad Tanner Spohn are also on the team.

Despite the early woes adjusting to the next level, Brannagan said the team is now in rhythm.

Brannagan shortened his stride and threw more bullpen sessions than usual. His work ethic has paid off, and he said he is glad he and the team adjusted together.

“These guys are awesome,” Brannagan said. It’s a fun time. If we’re losing, we’re still going to have fun, but we’re going to do everything in our power to try and come back and win a game. There’s no experience like playing with like a lot of college kids and a couple of high school kids that you know.”

Seth Helgert, who is the nephew of coach Helgert, also enjoys playing alongside his new teammates.

“We built a lot of chemistry very quickly,” Seth Helgert said. “There’s a lot of young faces, and there’s a lot of veterans like sophomores, juniors in college. We even have a sixth-year senior on our team, and I didn’t know how it’d be meshing with my teammates, but I’m now close to these guys.”

Seth Helgert believes the team adjusted quickly to the college level because he and his teammates went through it together. He said he enjoys watching his high school teammate Slepak develop into a college athlete.

“I’ve really seen his progression,” Seth Helgert said. “He’s been a whole different person for this college team, and he went through the same process as me getting used to hitting the college pitching. We’re down the same path, but it’s pretty cool to do it together.”

Slepak and Seth Helgert will play college ball next season. Helgert will be attending Pitt-Johnstown, and Slepak will be going to Mount St. Mary’s.

Seth Helgert also gives credit to his uncle for the team’s chemistry. Despite being very close outside of baseball, this is the first time Seth has had his uncle as a coach.

The Blue Sox still have work ahead of them, and Coach Helgert believes that now that they have found their stride, they can make noise in the playoffs.

“The rest of the season, honestly, we’re going into the playoffs here in about a week and a half and we believe we could beat everybody there,” coach Helgert said.

“We’re very confident. The team never gets down. We can be getting beat up by a team, and they don’t care. They think we could still win. I do love this team. They’re grinders. If we can keep the walks to a minimum on the mound, we could beat anybody.”

Coach Helgert said coaching this team, win or lose, has been his favorite coaching experience so far.

“I can’t get enough of this team,” Helgert said. “I love everything. I can’t get enough.

“We had a game the other day that went on till 12:30 at night, and my guys wanted to play another game. It’s just cool.”