Aug. 7, 2009

Story Published in Glendale News Press on August 7, 2009
Written by: Charles Rich, Staff Writer

After playing Little League baseball together for several summers around Glendale, Evan Simonitsch and Jesse Meaux found themselves reunited this summer.

This time they were teammates on the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks in the Alaska Baseball League between late June and early August.

Simonitsch and Meaux each made their inaugural visits to Alaska to improve their skills after competing at Loyola Marymount University and UC Santa Barbara, respectively. They competed on an organization featuring an established alumni base ranging from Tom Seaver to Dave Winfield to Barry Bonds.

They fared well for the Goldpanners, who are a summer collegiate league team composed of Division I athletes from around parts of the country.

“When I first chose to go up there, I looked at the roster to see if there’s anybody I knew,” said Simonitsch, a St. Francis High graduate who played and started in all 49 games for Fairbanks (22-27) in the outfield. “I was close to going to UCSB, where I would have played with Jesse, but it’s a small world that we’d come together at this point of our careers.

To read the complete release, please click here.