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The wait is over. Baseball is returning to Northwest Arkansas.
Play in the Perfect Timing College League is set to begin Monday at Tyson Park in Springdale, ending a roughly 2.5-month absence of live sports in the area because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Originally created for local players within the Perfect Timing organization who are heading to JUCO or small colleges - and their alumni already at those schools - as an alternative to playing in leagues far from home, the collegiate summer league is booming as it enters its fifth season.
With several Division I players - including 10 from Arkansas - joining the league this summer, it is expected to be “by far the biggest year” yet, said JT Baker, the owner of Perfect Timing Academy.
“The Covid-19 thing has hurt a lot of leagues around the country,” Baker said. “People aren’t terribly comfortable traveling far away and host families have basically caused a lot of leagues to fold because…people aren’t very excited about having these people from far away staying with them. It’s given us a good opportunity.”
Several leagues have already canceled the entire 2020 season, with the most notable being the Cape Cod League in Massachusetts, while others - such as the Northwoods League in the midwest and California Collegiate League out west - are tentatively planning for a July 1 start.
That left many Razorbacks, who already had their season called off after just 16 games, without somewhere to play this summer. In stepped Baker, who contacted Dave Van Horn to help solve the problem.
“We’ve got a good relationship with the coaching staff at Arkansas and we visit with those guys frequently,” Baker said. “Basically, we knew where a lot of those guys were going to play summer ball and watched as their leagues folded. We reached out to the coaching staff and asked if they wanted to play with us.”
Ten Razorbacks took him up on his offer. Will McEntire, Jacob Nesbit, Peyton Pallette, Brady Slavens and Braydon Webb will be teammates on the black team, while Christian Franklin, Matt Goodheart, Kevin Kopps and Caden Monke will team up on the cardinal team.
Jacob Burton rounds out the current Arkansas players in the league and he’ll be playing alongside Curtis Washington Jr., who has entered the transfer portal, on the white team. Robert Moore is also expected to play for the cardinal team before heading to Florida to play in another league.
“We’re really excited to have them,” Baker said. “They’re obviously good players and they’re going to make the league better and of course we’re all Razorback fans.”
Other notable players in the league include Kansas State’s trio of pitchers from the Natural State - Kasey Ford (Bentonville), Connor McCullough (Maumelle) and Jordan Wicks (Conway) - as well as Missouri’s Thomas Broyles (Fayetteville) and UALR’s Nathan Lyons (Bentonville).
The influx of players has led to the league ballooning from its usual 80-100 players on four teams to more than 190 on nine teams - six based in NWA and three in Tulsa with the Sandlot Baseball organization.
“The graduating high school seniors, this is going to essentially serve as their high school baseball season,” Baker said. “Most of them didn’t even get their high school baseball season off the ground. Some of the colleges got to play more games than others, but certainly not a full-blown college baseball season. This is going to be a nice bridge to help those guys have a season.”
The Perfect Timing College League is currently scheduled to play a five-week season in which teams play five games per week. However, that isn’t set in stone, as Baker acknowledged they’ve had discussions about changing it to four games per week and extending the season by a week.
In that scenario, it might be difficult for the league to have playoffs or an all-star game, but it might be worth it from a player’s perspective.
“One of the things we’re concerned about is making sure we take care of the arms,” Baker said. “These guys haven’t thrown live games for a while and they’re in varying degrees of being in shape, so we may kind of reconstruct the schedule…just to let the pitchers build up.”
Games will differ from normal college baseball in that they’ll be seven innings and played with wood bats, similar to most summer leagues.
The aforementioned pandemic will also have a noticeable impact on the league, as there will be pregame temperature checks, social distancing in the dugouts and multiple hand sanitizing stations. They are also awaiting word on whether or not masks will be recommended.
”The City of Springdale is getting us a set of guidelines that they’d like us to follow and we’re going to follow them to a T, for sure,” Baker said. “The safety of the players and coaches is our highest priority, obviously.”
Those guidelines will also apply to fans. Attendance will be limited to 50 people at each field - so 150 total at the facility - from dugout to dugout around the backstop. Bleachers will be closed off, so fans are asked to bring their own seating.
Any overflow will be allowed to sit down the lines and beyond the outfield fence. Concessions won’t be available either.
Admission is free and fans are encouraged to follow the Perfect Timing College League on Twitter - @college_pt - for updates throughout the season, including starting pitchers and schedule changes.
This Week's Schedule
Monday, June 1
Sandlot Black vs. Sandlot White (DH) - 3 p.m. - Tulsa
PT Cardinal vs. PT White - 5:30 p.m. - Tyson Springdale
PT Blue vs. PT White - 5:30 p.m. - Tyson Har-Ber
PT Grey vs. PT Black - 7:30 p.m. - Tyson Springdale
Tuesday, June 2
PT Grey vs. PT White - 5:30 p.m. - Tyson Har-Ber
PT Black vs. PT Cardinal - 5:30 p.m. - Tyson Springdale
PT Blue vs. Sandlot Gray - 5:30 p.m. - Tyson Ecclesia
PT Red vs. Sandlot Gray - 7:30 p.m. - Tyson Har-Ber
Wednesday, June 3
Sandlot Black vs. Sandlot Gray (DH) - 3 p.m. - Tulsa
PT Cardinal vs. PT White - 5:30 p.m. - Tyson Har-Ber
PT Red vs. PT Grey - 5:30 p.m. - Tyson Springdale
PT Blue vs. PT Black - 7:30 p.m. - Tyson Har-Ber
Thursday, June 4
Sandlot White vs. PT Cardinal - 5:30 p.m. - Tyson Springdale
PT Blue vs. PT Red - 5:30 p.m. - Tyson Har-Ber
Sandlot White vs. PT Grey - 7:30 p.m. - Tyson Har-Ber
PT White vs. PT Black - 7:30 p.m. - Tyson Springdale
Notable Players
PT Black team
RHP Will McEntire - Arkansas (Bryant)
INF Jacob Nesbit - Arkansas
RHP Peyton Pallette - Arkansas (Benton)
INF/OF Brady Slavens - Arkansas - JUCO transfer
OF/INF Braydon Webb - Arkansas
PT Cardinal team
OF Christian Franklin - Arkansas
1B/OF/DH Matt Goodheart - Arkansas (Magnolia)
RHP Kevin Kopps - Arkansas
LHP Caden Monke - Arkansas
*INF Robert Moore - Arkansas
RHP Connor McCullough - Kansas State (Maumelle) - former Arkansas signee
RHP Tanner Rogen - Oral Roberts
OF Drew Sturgeon - UCA signee (Farmington)
PT White team
RHP Jacob Burton - Arkansas
LHP Adam Scoggins - Oral Roberts (Springdale Har-Ber)
OF/INF Curtis Washington Jr. - transfer portal, former Hog (West Memphis)
PT Blue team
LHP Harrison Heffley - Harding (Rogers) - former Hog player/support staff
RHP Matthew Watson - Oklahoma signee (Rogers)
PT Grey team
RHP Seth Adams - Missouri signee (Fayetteville)
OF Thomas Broyles - Missouri (Fayetteville)
PT Red team
RHP Kasey Ford - Kansas State (Bentonville)
1B/OF Tyler Johnson - Eastern Oklahoma St. C.C./Coastal Carolina commit (Bentonville) - former Arkansas signee
INF Nathan Lyons - Little Rock (Bentonville)
LHP Reed Ronan - Oral Roberts signee (Bentonville)
INF Cameron Thompson - Kansas State
LHP Jordan Wicks - Kansas State (Conway)
Sandlot Black team
RHP Dylan Beirman - Lipscomb
LHP Cale Crutchfield - Oral Roberts
INF James Dunlap - Northeastern Oklahoma A&M C.C. - former Wichita State signee
C/RHP Brody Gibson - Oral Roberts
1B/LHP Cooper McMurray - Kansas signee
INF Jake McMurray - Oral Roberts
C Parker Rowland - Arkansas State
INF Blake Shannon - Johnson County C.C./Oklahoma commit
Sandlot Grey team
INF/RHP Isaac Coffey - Oral Roberts
RHP/INF Gus Collins - Northeastern Oklahoma A&M/former Arkansas signee
RHP Holden Cook - Eastern Michigan
OF Josh Cox - Oral Roberts
RHP Braxton Douthit - Lamar
INF Cristofer Hernandez - Oral Roberts
RHP Trevor Martin - Oklahoma State signee
RHP Kaleb McCullough - Oral Roberts
OF Cam Thompson - former Oklahoma State player, transfer portal
Sandlot White team
OF/LHP Jaxson Crull - Oklahoma State signee
RHP Jace Kaminska - Wichita State signee
