Fall Ball Kicks off at UWS

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

 
As part of its annual non-traditional “fall ball” season, the Yellowjacket baseball team will be hosting its annual “Black and Gold Weekend” this coming Friday and Saturday, September 26 and 27.

The weekend will kick off with a banquet where 2014 award winners and 2015 captains will be recognized, as will alumni that are in attendance. This year, former Yellowjacket middle infielder Sean Cummings will be the guest speaker on behalf of the alumni. Cummings played four seasons for the Yellowjackets from 2007 through 2010. In 153 games, Cummings batted .380 with 31 doubles, 15 triples, and 14 home runs. He also drove in 79 runs and finished in the top two on the Yellowjackets in batting average each of his four years.

This year’s banquet will be held at Barkers Island Inn and will begin with a social hour at 5:30 p.m. The meal and program will begin at 6:30 p.m. The cost to attend the banquet is $25 and tickets can be purchased through the UW-Superior coaching staff.

On Saturday the Yellowjacket squad for 2015 will take on the alumni at venerable Ted Whereatt Field beginning at 11:00 a.m. While Yellowjacket Head Coach Nick Bursik and Assistant Coaches Shaun Marshall and Casey Dittel lead the existing Yellowjackets, former UW-Superior standout Gary Fritch, a 2003 inductee into the UW-Superior Athletic Hall of Fame and a former draft pick of the Milwaukee Brewers, will manage the alumni team. Fritch, a Duluth native and a two-sport standout who was an All-American and won a national championship with the Yellowjacket hockey team in 1976, will also pitch for the alumni.

The teams will play two seven-inning games. In between games UW-Superior will host a cookout, with about 500 hot dogs being provided free-of-charge on a first come, first served basis to those in attendance.

The weekend will wrap up with an alumni social on Saturday night at the Dugout Lounge, located at 1318 Tower Avenue in Superior beginning at 6:00 p.m.

“This is one of the best weekends of the year for the Yellowjacket baseball program. We have worked hard over the past several years to build a culture around Yellowjacket baseball and a big part of that was getting our alumni involved in the program that they laid the foundation for,” Bursik said. “You can’t help but notice how supportive our growing alumni base has been. I noticed it first as a player but have developed a new appreciation for it now that I have taken over the program. This weekend is a way for our current team to say thank you to the people that do so much to make the Yellowjacket baseball experience a special one.”

For more information on Black and Gold weekend or the Yellowjacket baseball program, contact Bursik at 715-395-4671 or by email at nbursik@uwsuper.edu.