Pioneers Serve As Grand Marshalls of Christmas Parade

 

Pioneer Pitching Duo Decide on Oklahoma State
Reid Barnett and Michael Peoples, two returning members of the 2011 National Championship team have made their decision to continue their academic and athletic careers at Oklahoma State University. The two will not have to wait to see who their new roomates will be once they arrive in Stillwater. The two pitchers have been roomates since their arrival at Western Oklahoma State as freshmen.
 

Barnett, a Wichita Falls, Texas native, finished the 2011 season with 5 wins while working 57.1 innings for the Pioneers. Peoples, a product of Weatherford, Texas, finished second on the team in innings, 65.2, while finishing with a 6-1 record. The two will play a big role in the Pioneers quest for another National Title in 2012. Western opens the 2012 season on February 17 with a four game series at home versus Coffeyville (KS).

Oklahoma State Univerity, a member of the Big 12 Conference, is coached by Head Coach Frank Anderson. Assistant Coach Greg Evans had followed the two pitchers over the past year before offering a scholarship to the two. Barnett and Peoples made the decision final by signing a National Letter of Intent on November 10th. The OSU Cowboys are coming off of a 35-25 season in 2011. Oklahoma State had a pair of former Western players on their roster in Luis Uribe and Chris Byford. OSU had previously signed Randolph Oduber, Casey Sadler, and Jamaine Cotton off of the 2010 Western team, but the three all opted to sign professionally.
        

Perez Leading the Way For Hometown Team
One thing that Juan Carlos Perez has had no problem doing is hitting a baseball. The Dominican Republic native, broke the NJCAA Div.II single season record for Homeruns (37) and RBI's (102) during his lone season at Western Oklahoma. He followed that up as being named to the All Star team in each of his first two seasons as a professional, including being named the MVP of the California League All Star Game in 2010.

Currently, Perez is starting in the outfield for Aguilas Cibaenas of the Dominican Winter League, where one of his teammates is former WOSC Pioneer pitcher Angel Castro. The league is filled with players currently on Major League rosters, with many of the country's biggest names returning to play in the league in the MLB offseason.

Perez is spending his third offseason playing for the team that he grew up following as a youngster. While seeing limited time in his first season, 2010 saw him get time as a reserve outfielder. The 2011 season marks the first time that Perez can show up to the park knowing that his name will be listed on Manager Felix Fermin's lineup card.

He is making the most of his opportunities this season. Perez currently is tied for the league lead in Batting Average (.358), first in Hits (29), second in Doubles (6), second in Stolen Bases (8), and third in Triples (2). The team is currently in second place in the standings, one game behind Tigres del Licey.
 

Simmons Garners Baseball America Honors

Andrelton Simmons was recently named by Baseball America as the #4 overall prospect in the Atlanta Braves minor league system. The top three propects were all pitchers, making Simmons the top position player in the Braves organization. The distinction comes after recently being named the #4 overall prospect in the Carolina League. For the second consecutive year he was also tabbed as being the Best Defensive Infielder and having the Best Infield Arm in the organization.

The list of honors from Baseball America for the Curacao native shortstop date back to his days wearing the Western Oklahoma St. uniform. Entering the 2010 Major League Baseball draft, Simmons was rated as the top rated shortstop by the publication. He would go on to become the Atlanta Braves 2nd Round draft choice.

In his second season of professional baseball, while playing for the Lynchburg Hillcats of the Class A Advanced Carolina League, Simmons led the league in Batting Average hitting at a .311 clip. The next closest player, Carlo Testa, batted .290. He also led the league in Hits (161) while finishing in the top 10 in the tradition rich Carolina League in Runs, Doubles, Triples, Total Bases, Stolen Bases, and On Base %. For his efforts Simmons was named as a Carolina League Midseason All Star and also to the Postseason All Star team. In 2010 he was named to the Appalachian League's Postseason All Star team also. In his lone season wearing Western's green and gold, he hit .472 with 16 Doubles, 7 Homeruns, and 15 Stolen Bases as the Pioneers would finish 3rd at the 2010 NJCAA World Series. The team also tied the National Record for Wins in a Season with 56.

A Bastion for Latino Baseball on the Prairie

Last year, Western Oklahoma State Coach Kurt Russell, right, and his assistants Ramon Lora, left,

and Matt Kruse produced more major league draft choices than Oklahoma or Oklahoma St.

By JORGE CASTILLO
NEW YORK TIMES

More than 1,500 miles from his home campus in Altus, Okla., a junior college baseball coach might have seemed out of place recently at a rundown diamond in Brooklyn. But that is how he likes it.

“There’s never another coach out at these games,” said the coach, Kurt Russell of Western Oklahoma State College. “I’m never competing against anyone.”

Russell had traveled to the Boston area to visit his parents, then made a side trip to New York on a tip from one of his connections in the city: a tall right-hander with a 94-mile-an-hour fastball had recently arrived from the Dominican Republic.

Such connections — and the players they unearth — have allowed Russell to build a baseball juggernaut in Altus, continually replenishing a roster loaded with talented Latino players from the Northeast. Long a mediocre program, Western Oklahoma State has won at least 50 games and appeared in the national junior college Division II World Series each of the last four seasons, winning its first national championship in June.

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