By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
The body language was what Burlington Bees manager Owen Oreskovich wanted to see in his first team meeting on Sunday.
“They seemed excited yesterday about everything,” Oreskovich said. “When we were talking about winning, I saw a bunch of head nods. We’ve got a bunch of guys from winning programs, and that’s going to be a main focus with this group.”
The Bees open the Prospect League season with Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. game against the Normal CornBelters at Community Field. It’s the sixth season for the franchise in the college summer league, but it’s the first time the Bees are opening the season coming off a playoff appearance the season before.
Burlington went 33-21 last season. They went 21-7 in the second half to win the Northwest Division, then lost to the Clinton LumberKings in the first round of the playoffs.
That run was just fuel for Oreskovich, who enters his fifth season as the Bees’ manager.
“That meant a lot, especially to this town,” Oreskovich said. “It meant a lot to me, but to give back to this town and to these fans who support us, it meant the world. All of those guys on that team mean a lot to me. They’re still brothers, they still send each other messages in the group chat. It’s really cool.”
Oreskovich said his time with the Bees has been an education — his college baseball job is hitting coach at Mount Mercy University.
“I’ve learned a lot here — I don’t really know where to start,” he said. “How to take care of people is one thing. How to manage a team is another. But really building a culture is something I’ve learned, and that has happened here. That happened last summer. It was kind of like the first summer where we’ve had that.
“The culture I would want is a family-like culture, where guys are going to work hard every single day they come in, but also have that want and will to win. That’s exactly what that team had last year, and I’m going to work the hardest to build that here this year as well.”
Oreskovich has put together a 40-player roster — “I had a lot more than 40 interested,” he said, laughing — although some players have still not finished their spring college seasons and will arrive in the next couple of weeks.
“Hopefully all of these guys want to be here all summer,” Oreskovich said. “I know some guys have some commitments in the second half. When I get guys in the summer, I expect them to come here, play hard, and I’m going to give them a good time.”
It is mostly a new team. Only three players from last season — pitcher Mitchell Cox, infielder Kila Teixeira and outfielder Jace Figuereo — are currently on the roster.
“Having a couple of guys from last year come back, that means a lot,” Oreskovich said. “A bunch of those guys we had last year were older. But I’m excited about this group. It is a little younger group — we have a couple of juniors. They might have to learn a little bit. But we have guys from winning programs, and that matters. They know how to go about their business, and I expect the same thing out of them.”
Oreskovich hadn’t decided on an Opening Day starting pitcher as of Monday afternoon, but he has a deep pitching staff of 22 players.
“That’s the earliest thing I focus on,” Oreskovich said of how he put together this roster. “Sometimes that’s hard with coaches not wanting to place pitchers (with summer league teams) early on in the year. But that’s kind of the main thing I focus on right away. That was something I did last year, that maybe I wanted more pitchers than the average team would have. But it matters if you have six starters — those guys are throwing once every six days, seven days. Keeping them fresh is something I care about, too. It’s really nice to have that many guys.”
The progression of the franchise extended to the postseason in 2025. Oreskovich would like to have a deeper run.
“We’re going to have fun, but we’re going to go about our business and work hard and win baseball games,” he said. “I haven’t met too many people in the world who like losing, and I sure as heck do not.”
Photo: Burlington Bees manager Owen Oreskovich (right) celebrates a home run with Cole Yearsley last season. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
