by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington Heat wrapped up its first season at Sellers Park Wednesday night with a 3-0 win over the Casa Grande Cotton Kings in Arizona. Rick Twyman, owner/coach of the Heat, also announced the Heat will be back for at least one more season.

“I listen to what the players say to one another and they really love the town,” Twyman said. “It’s been a really good experience.”

Twyman, though, would not commit more than next year. He said there are several things that need to be worked out with the city of Wellington in the future before he can make a long-term commitment. 

“They are wanting a long-term deal and right now I’m looking at a yearly deal,” Twyman said. “We’ll look at all that during the off season.”

For the time being, the Heat have more pressing issues – like the 79th Annual NBC World Series in Wichita at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium on 300 S. Sycamore in Wichita…
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What’s ahead

The Wellington Heat makes their debut against the Colorado Sox. Game time is… 1 a.m. Saturday. No, that isn’t a Sumner Newscow misprint.

The Heat will be part of the annual “Round the Clock of baseball” – an annual promotion for the NBC World Series.

It will be the first game in what the Heat hope will be a long ride in Wichita (see bracket here: http://www.nbcbaseball.com/nbcwsbracket.html). The Series goes through Aug. 10.

If Wellington wins in the middle of the night Saturday, then it will more than likely play the Santa Barbara Calif. Foresters, who are the defending NBC World Series Champions on Sunday.

“It’s better to play them very early in the tournament than later on,” Twyman said.

The 2013 NBC World Series is divided into two brackets. The first bracket was called the “First Week” bracket which is still being played. That contained the lower 16 of 30 teams who qualified for the big show. The El Dorado Broncos won that bracket but a runner-up game is still needed to be played.

The Wellington Heat, though, automatically qualified in the “Championship Week” bracket thus not needing to play the first week. The top two teams in the Jayhawk League got automatic berths. The Hays Larks won the Jayhawk League with a 22-10 record. The Heat came in second with a 20-13 record.

Starting Friday night with Round the Clock baseball, the tournament will be double elimination until the top six teams are determined. Then there will be a series of brackets played August 8-10 to determine the 2013 NBC World Series champion.

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The analysis

It turned out to be a pretty good season for the Heat despite the shaky start, now just one of three Jayhawk teams still playing.

“I think we have won 17 of our last 21 games, and that is not bad,” Twyman said. “As long as we swing the bats, we’ll be just fine.”

The Heat has some good numbers to bring in the tournament. One telling stat Twyman thinks will be beneficial to the Heat are the number of strikeouts.

“I think we have had 1,500 at bats, and have had just 158 strikeouts,” Twyman said. “Our boys don’t strikeout. That doesn’t make a lot of difference here at Sellers but you get up there on that turf and it is huge.”

Wellington has hit .298 as a team. Joe Williams of Sterling College and Nick Billinger of Regis University finished as the No. 1 and No. 4 offensive leaders in the Jayhawk. Williams hitting average was .406 and Billinger at .357.

“The first guy I met in Wellington was Jud Mitchell,” Twyman said. “He told me the town is hungry for a winner. I hope to do that.”

Wellington opened with huge crowds and a quick start its first week. But the Major League Baseball draft hit the Heat hard and the team fell below .500. Hays would establish a lead in the Jayhawk League and never relinquished it. However, in July, the Heat would rally to finish second and secure a Championship Week berth in the NBC Tournament.

“I think it was June 25 or something like that when I had a ‘come to Jesus’ talk with my team,” Twyman said. “Since that point we have been doing much, much better.”