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-> When Patrick Winkel made his High-A career debut with the Cedar Rapids Kernels on May 25, he was hardly a lone Connecticut Yankee in the midst of an Iowa cornfield.
At the top of the Kernels’ lineup that day was Anthony Prato, a 2019 teammate of Winkel’s at UConn who was roommates with Winkel’s older brother, Chris, for three years at Storrs.
And right below Winkel on the lineup card, hitting eighth, was Kyler Fedko, with whom Winkel roomed during his own three years in Storrs.
“The Cedar Rapids Huskies,” quipped Jim Penders, who coached all three on the UConn baseball team.
Indeed, while it’s certainly not rare for former college teammates to cross paths as teammates throughout the minor-league ranks, for three former teammates from one Northeast school — and not a “super power” like Tennessee, Vanderbilt or Stanford — to be together on the same minor-league squad is certainly ...
“Kind of a little deja vu,” according to Winkel.
“Pretty crazy stuff,” added Fedko.
“An amazing set of circumstances,” Penders summed up.<-