Champion City Kings hope to start season on schedule

Southeastern High School graduate and Wright State University sophomore Wes Earles pitches in a recent game for the Champion City Kings. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY MICHAEL COOPER

Southeastern High School graduate and Wright State University sophomore Wes Earles pitches in a recent game for the Champion City Kings. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY MICHAEL COOPER

The Champion City Kings hope to open the season May 28 as scheduled, General Manager Ginger Fulton said Tuesday.

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in cancellations and postponements in the sports world across the globe. Major League Baseball hopes to start play in early May, and the Prospect League plans to follow suit, though it’s too soon to say what the state of the pandemic will be then.

“We’re hoping we’re past all of this,” Fulton said. “Our directors talk and text each other almost daily and have been for the last six or seven days. We’re not talking about cancelling at all. We have a previously scheduled and routine meeting planned for mid-April, and we hope by then we’ll have some better ideas of where we are with everything nationally.”

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The collegiate summer wooden bat league came to Springfield in 2014. This will be the Kings’ seventh season at Carleton Davidson Stadium. The Kings have an all-time record of 152-203. Their best season was 2017 when they finished 29-29.

The Kings are scheduled to open the season at Chillicothe on May 28 with the home opener one day later. Major League Baseball announced Monday it wouldn’t start the season until at least May 10 based on the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Kings and Prospect League will continue to monitor what the big leagues do.

Bringing the players to Springfield early to get them in playing shape is one thing Fulton hopes to do.

“We know a lot of them will continue to work out, but a lot of them won’t,” she said. “We don’t want to get anyone hurt. We want to get them stretching, running, throwing the ball around because they will have not been with people for a while.”

Whenever the Kings do start the season, Fulton knows it will be a big deal.

“We’re hoping we’re the best game in town,” she said. “We’ll be starving for sports by then. I know I am already.”

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