Flycatchers season underway

The Blackwell Flycatchers baseball club have started their maiden season in the Pecos League. The Pecos League was founded in 2011, and is an independent league, meaning that it is not affiliated with minor league baseball.

There are currently 7 independent leagues in in the United States, and only 69 teams, Blackwell being one of them. There are only 3 minor league teams in Oklahoma, the Oklahoma City Dodgers and Tulsa Drillers, which are both affiliated with MLB, and now the Blackwell Flycatchers, the first independent league baseball team in Oklahoma in a very long time. The Pecos League covers primarily the southwestern United States and operates with 2 division, the Pacific division consisting of 8 teams based in California cities, and the Mountain Division, which is where the Flycatchers are located.

The Mountain division includes teams from Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Kansas, and now Oklahoma.

While the Blackwell team team’s mascot is representative of Oklahoma and our state bird, some of the other teams have some interesting and comical mascots, such as the Austin Weirdos represented by a bug-eyed cartoon looking monster, the Roswell Invaders and their alien head mascot, the Bakersfield Train Robbers and the Vallejo Seaweed just to name a few. The Flycatchers started their season with a 5 game series with the Garden City Wind in Garden City, KS. The Flycatchers won their first game 9-2 on June 1st, 2023. Their game on June 2nd was postponed due to heavy rain. The Flycatchers then dropped the remaining 3 games 3-1, 14-7 and 15-9.

The Flycatchers played their first home game at Morgan field on June 5th, 2023, and were blown out 22-1 by the Santa Fe Fuego. The Flycatchers began a 3 game home series with the Trinidad Triggers on June 9th, but lost all 3 games, 12-1, 11-4 and 17-12. The Flycatchers then traveled to Austin Texas for a 3 game series against the Weirdos. The first game of the series scheduled for June 12th was rained out. The Flycatchers will travel Roswell, NM on June 14th for a 5 game series against the Invaders, and will return home to Blackwell return home on June 20th for a 3 game series against Santa Fe.

Tickets for home games are $10, with children under 5 free. Tickets for senior citizens, veterans and military are $8. Family packages are $25 for a family of 4, with $5 for each additional child. Team/Organization packages are $75 and includes 15 tickets, and $5 for each additional ticket. Flycatchers T-shirts are $20, and hats are $30.

Concessions/bar is on site. The team is also in search of a home announcer and statistician. The team is also looking for local sponsorships. You can visit Blackwellflycatchers.com for team schedules, scores and employment information.