By Zach Zook
BLOOMINGTON – One year after returning from a more than decade-long hiatus, the Bloomington Bobcats came within one win of a title.
The Bobcats played a third and final deciding game on Tuesday to decide their three-game Midwest Collegiate League championship series. The Bobcats weren’t crowned champion at the end of the night, but the organization will gladly take the result as the Bobcats are still relatively new. The organization’s roots go deeper than some may realize, however.
The Bobcats played in the Central Illinois Collegiate League from 1963-79, while a separate Bobcats team played from 1982-2002.
The comeback continued this season as the Bobcats placed in the top four of their league to make the playoffs, and then had a walkoff win in the final game of the semifinals to advance to the championship series.
“I’d say our season went pretty well as a whole,” catcher and Normal West grad Mitch Fairfield said. “We kind of got off to a slow start just waiting for players to get there because people were finishing up their college seasons. But once that got going I feel like we got rolling a little bit and we rattled off like a nine game win streak to start.”
While the Bobcats play their home games here in town, most of the other teams in their league are near the Chicagoland area.
“Most of us that were in town would take a van and then some of the guys that lived in Chicago would just meet us at the game,” said Jack Butler, a Tri-Valley graduate and current Illinois State baseball player. “It was kind of all over the place at times but it was really fun.”
For players like Butler and Fairfield that are Bloomington-Normal natives, the carpooling to games is worth it for the reward of staying in their hometown for the summer. In the case of Fairfield, he is returning from Southern Illinois where he plays during the school year, and for Butler, he gets to stay in the same town that he lives and goes to school.
“It was amazing to just be at home and to just have my family come out to all the games and just to see them all the time, extended family and everything,” Butler said. “I was really grateful for that opportunity.”
Zach Zook can be reached at [email protected].
