Former high school teammates anchor pitching staff for Southeast Missouri State

In the week of practice leading up to the Southeast Missouri State baseball team's first Ohio Valley Conference series last year, coach Steve Bieser addressed his team about a shakeup to the pitching rotation for the team's weekend series against Belmont.

It was in that moment that a moniker for a pair of pitchers from Crystal City High School in Crystal City, Missouri -- Travis Hayes and Alex Winkelman -- was born.

"He was like, 'Then on Sunday we're going to have the Crystal City connection,'" Hayes said with a laugh. "That I would start and Winks would be the first person out of the bullpen, and then for whatever reason it just stuck."

It was the first start for the then-junior Hayes, who allowed just two hits in six shutout innings of work before Winkelman finished it off allowing just one hit in a three-inning save for the 7-0 victory. It was the start of a conference season where Hayes was named the OVC Co-Pitcher of the Year and Winkelman earned the coveted Friday-night starting role for the conference champion Redhawks.

The duo, now simply known as "The Connection," have a lot in common -- from their love of competing in anything from baseball to Xbox or Spades, and even their stature and somewhat flowing blonde hair -- but it's their differences that make them the perfect pair of starters to lead Southeast in its quest for a consecutive title and more.

They push the other to be their best competitor and also are one another's best asset, improving each other's weaknesses and applauding each other's strengths.

"I think Travis is very outgoing and kind of quirky at times, like a typical pitcher," Bieser said. "And Winks is a left-handed pitcher, which you'd think would be the quirky guy, but he's more quiet, reserved, doesn't show a lot of emotion, just kind of goes out and goes about his business. But I truly believe that they're a perfect match.

"You can see the way that they bonded in our program. They do everything together. They get their work in together, they challenge each other, they push each other, so it's a really good match. I think they're the best of friends -- that's on the field, off the field, and just do an outstanding job of holding each other accountable."

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Southeast's championship season last year was the first year that the righty Hayes and lefty Winkelman pitched together as Redhawks, but their relationship began years before.

Winkelman, now a junior, and Hayes, a senior, were teammates for two years at Crystal City.

Hayes was the team's ace during his senior season in 2010 before a shoulder injury sidelined him mere weeks before postseason play started.

In stepped the sophomore Winkelman, who hadn't pitched much for the Hornets that season.

"He always walked around high school with his baseball glove on, he's a little over the top, I guess, but I kind of followed his lead a little bit because he was the leader of our high school team at that point, the best player," Winkelman said. "He was probably one of the best pitchers in high school baseball in Missouri when I got there. Then that next year he was an all-state pitcher and then right before the playoffs he goes down with an injury, and basically I just had to step in right behind him."

Southeast Missouri State pitchers and longtime friends Travis Hayes, left, and Alex Winkleman, hang out at Capaha Field, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015. (Laura Simon)

Winkelman pitched in place of Hayes in the district championship game against defending Class 2 state champion Valle Catholic, a team that Southeast senior shortstop Jason Blum was a member of, and turned in a complete-game, two-hit shutout in a 1-0 victory for the district title.

"That was the first game I pitched that would normally be his game to pitch, and so he was just in the dugout helping me out the whole time," Winkelman said. "Every time I pitched, pretty much, he was in the dugout keeping me calm. I was just a 16-year old kid trying to pitch against all these good teams, so really that's how our relationship started right there. He was basically like my second coach out there."

The Hornets went on to win the Class 2 state championship.

"Honestly if I hadn't been hurt I probably would've thrown against Valle in the championship game and we probably would've lost because I couldn't pitch against them," Hayes said with a laugh. "Alex basically carried that team to winning a state title."

The pair played together that summer for the perennially strong Festus Post 253 Senior Legion baseball team and coach Pat Bone. Hayes rejoined the team with about a month left after rehabbing his shoulder although it never felt "great," and the team won its second of three consecutive state titles. Hayes, who played for Festus from 2008 to 2010, also was part of a 2009 team that finished fifth in the American Legion World Series. Winkelman played for the team from 2010 to 2012.

Winkelman's standout high school career continued over the next two years before he came to Southeast. Meanwhile Hayes spent three years at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, Missouri.

After pain continued in Hayes' throwing arm in the fall of 2010 when he arrived at Jefferson, he had it reevaluated by a doctor and found out that he had a tear on his rotator cuff and labrum.

He had surgery in February 2011, redshirted that year and rehabbed the entire summer. In 2012 he pitched 55 innings with a 5-2 record and 4.58 ERA for the Vikings, who finished fourth at the Junior College World Series.

Hayes had just three appearances the following year after having elbow surgery in February 2013.

"After being hurt as many times as I was I'm happy that I can still even throw a baseball, and then couple that with actually being on a team that won a conference title last year is an even better feeling, and just knowing that I got to actually help contribute a little bit because there was so long at Jeff Co where I didn't really get to do anything," Hayes said. " *... I think just being able to be healthy and actually play on the field for a team is really kind of a blessing with how many times I've been hurt because there was plenty of times while I was doing rehab for either the shoulder or the elbow where you just get to a point where it just hurts all the time and it's like, 'There's just no way that this is going to get back to a point where you can throw again,' but it did and I feel like I'm really lucky, especially with the shoulder because there's a lot of people who have it done and it just never comes back."

When the Southeast coaches showed interest in Hayes in the fall of his third year at Jefferson, he reached out to Winkelman for his opinion before coming on the only visit he needed to make his decision to join the Redhawks.

"I told him how I thought we were headed in the right direction with [Bieser] stepping in as the head coach and I just tried to sell him on it because I wanted him down here because I could see that we were headed in the right direction as a team," Winkelman said. "Basically I said, 'This is what I think. This is why I think you'll fit in here.' Obviously he exceeded all expectations there with his performance last year, but it was really a couple phone calls, and I think I met up with him on his visit here and just kind of tried to push him towards it. In reality I wanted what was best for him, and I think this was the best choice."

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Bieser had seen the pair in action for years before they reconnected at Southeast last season, and had always been confident in their abilities.

Southeast Missouri State pitchers and longtime friends Travis Hayes, right, and Alex Winkleman, hang out at Capaha Field, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015. (Laura Simon)

His son and former Southeast center fielder Cole Bieser, and Blum, his nephew, had both played for Valle in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, and he'd also seen them throughout summer leagues.

"What I've seen them grow, especially in their time here, is that mental side of the game and understanding, and not just taking the words and advices of their coaches, but also digging in and asking questions, and those things are very important to me," Bieser said. "You could just see that natural maturation of those guys. Seeing them from year to year, seeing that development, seeing that competitiveness, that's what I really admire about them because each year I would see them -- I mean, I wasn't with them every day, but I would see them in the summer -- and I could see the progress they were making, and you still knew that there was more potential there."

Bieser said following an inning where they threw a good pitch that got hit, they'd want to understand why. The coaches used moments like those to explain that sometimes their strength is also the hitter's strength or maybe they didn't read the count, hitter or timing in that moment, and it's something he's seen them continue to improve.

Hayes and Winkelman also use each other throughout every practice and game.

They've been catching partners since Hayes joined the team and are both familiar with how the other throws and point out flaws or strengths as they see them.

"That's one of the biggest reasons that I love being down here with him, is that we feed off each other so well like not just from a mechanical aspect, but from a mental aspect of a game -- just talking about different scenarios, working on different pitches in situations -- the baseball side of our friendship is key to our success *... especially in games," Hayes said. "I obviously talk to [assistant coach Lance] Rhodes and Coach Bieser and [assistant coach Dillon] Lawson and my catcher, but the next person I go to about anything I have questions about in a game is him, because he's sitting on the bench and he knows so much about me that it's really easy for me to get immediate feedback from him and know that it's right because he's just sitting on the outside of the game watching. And vice versa when he's throwing I do the same. We just both feed off each other really well, and I know that that's part of the reason that I was successful last year is because I had him in my back pocket all the time."

Winkelman didn't recall any time during last season where he really had a correction for Hayes because it wasn't often that he struggled, but was excited he'd been able to help him adjust a new pitch this fall.

"He's been working on his slider, and I think that was my best secondary pitch and just basically the little thing I saw in his glove was his fingers were spread apart and I pushed them together for it and he started working on that a little bit, just throwing it a little bit more like I did," Winkelman said. "It's developed into, I think, a really great secondary pitch for him. He does the same thing, if you watch him pitch, his curveball is his best pitch and that's the pitch I've struggled with the most. So I think I've improved one of his worst pitches with what I knew, and he improved my worst pitch."

The two had split up over the summer. Hayes remained in the area and pitched for the Plaza Tire Capahas amateur baseball team while Winkelman pitched for the Duluth Huskies in the Northwoods League in Duluth, Minnesota.

Winkelman started eight games and finished with record of 2-3 and a team-low 2.43 ERA.

"The reason we went that way with it, I thought it was good for Travis to get a little break," Bieser said. "It's the most he's thrown in a while and it could be very laid back being able to stay here for the Capahas. Our goal for him was to only throw another five or six games, about five innings each outing. He was able to go more innings than that because he throws a lot of strikes and was able to get deeper in Capaha games. That worked out exactly the way we wanted it to work out just because of his history of arm issues. With Alex we wanted to push him to that next level, push him to one of the toughest leagues and let him go out in the first half of the season and show what he can do. Not only from the standpoint of being able to come back and be ready for us, but as a chance for him to prove himself against some upper level talent and set himself up for pro ball as well."

The expectations for the two returners remain high. They'll both take the mound in today's doubleheader against Bowling Green, with Winkelman set to start in Game 1 and Hayes in Game 2.

Hayes, who started last season in the bullpen, finished 8-2 last season with a 3.23 ERA, including pitching a three-hit complete-game shutout in a 1-0 win against Jacksonville State. Winkelman, who started several midweek games, eventually worked his way into the weekend rotation and was 6-2 with a 3.48 ERA.

Southeast Missouri State pitchers and longtime friends Travis Hayes, left, and Alex Winkleman, hang out at Capaha Field, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015. (Laura Simon)

"If they can put together the same season they had last year I'd be completely satisfied, but that's not what we talk about," Bieser said. "We talk about getting better, and they understand that and they expect to have better seasons. Number-wise I don't know that they will because they both put up really good numbers. Alex got off to a slow start, but he really rebounded and finished strong. We'll take those same numbers, but I think they'll both be better. It's going to be more difficult, but they understand that because Travis being labeled OVC Pitcher of the Year there's a target on your back that people want to prove themselves and they're going to raise their level of play. And Alex being a pretty good pro prospect right now people are going to want to prove against him. They both have their work cut out for them, but the thing about them is they're preparing every day. They're not going to look back and be like, 'Well, this should've happened or that should've happened,' because they can be satisfied with the preparation that they put in every day."

They won't be satisfied unless they continue to improve, Hayes said.

"Just that expectation that Coach Bieser has that it doesn't matter what you did last year or even yesterday, you're still trying to get better no matter what you did --our Legion coach Pat Bone was the same way, so we kind of had that mantra drilled into our heads since we were 15, playing for him," Hayes said. "Our Legion teams were successful when we were on them, but that was never enough. We were always striving for more the next year, so I know for me and him, and everybody on our team really, that last year doesn't matter. We're expected to do better. We expect it of ourselves, and if we don't do better then it's a failure."