The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Sisters High School baseball coach Kramer Croisant didn’t want to have to wait until spring 2021 to get his team back together. They’d already lost the entire 2020 season — which would have been his first at the helm of the Outlaws’ program — to COVID-19 shutdowns. So he took the proactive step to see if some fall baseball could be possible in the Central Oregon region.

“I caught wind that Marc Horner, the facilities manager for the Redmond School District, planned to start the Deschutes Baseball Academy, in part to facilitate some baseball games,” said Croisant.

The idea came to fruition and teams from Sisters, Bend High, Mountain View, Summit, Redmond, Ridgeview and La Pine got on board.

The league gave the Outlaws the chance to play two to three games a week during the 3-1/2-week season.

“We ended up playing a total of eight games, seven of which were in Redmond and the final one at Vince Genna Stadium in Bend against Summit,” he said.

Coaches volunteered their time and players got to take part at no cost, according to Croisant.

Eighteen of the 24 players Croisant has listed on the spring roster took part in the fall league.

Croisant witnessed more than just baseball once he had the kids back together on a regular basis after being apart for so long.

“The kids and parents were both very grateful to be out playing or watching baseball again,” the coach said. “Everything I heard from players and parents was that the experience was positive. We had a number of kids playing club baseball this summer and fall, but it was great to get the group back together to play with each other again.”

The emphasis on the fall league was not on wins and losses, but on getting kids active and providing some experience, according to Croisant.

He said, “The team competed extremely well against larger, local varsity teams. We got to face some good varsity pitching which was a great opportunity for our younger guys. Overall, I think we went right around .500. I don’t think anyone in the league was too concerned about wins and losses. We were all just trying to get kids playing time.”

Looking ahead to the spring season, Croisant said, “I’m excited to get all of our guys back together on the same page. I can’t wait to get back to practicing together and competing together. We have a group of players and coaches that really care about one another. I think this could be a pretty special spring for Outlaw baseball.”

Croisant is assisted by Brad Linn and Shane Brady.