There was a baseball reunion Thursday night in Boise, Idaho. Four players who played high school baseball in the Chattanooga area got together following the game between the Boise Hawks and the Tri-City Dust Devils.
Kyler Burke, who played at Ooltewah, played host to Dust Devils Ryan Casteel (Bradley Central), Tyler Massey (Baylor) and Blake McDade (Ooltewah).
The four are playing in the Single A Northwest League, Burke as a representative of the Cubs and Casteel, Massey and McDade as members of the Rockies organization.
Burke has been in Boise before but it was as an outfielder. Nowadays he’s a left-handed pitcher who picked up his first win Tuesday, pitching two innings of relief in his first outing as a professional pitcher.
“It was exciting. It’s been four or five years since I have thrown in a [real] game,” he said. “The games in Arizona [extending spring] were more like practice games; no fans in the stands, no stats kept.”