Lance Berkman, Craig Biggio, and Jeff Bagwell were once known as the Killers B’s when they played for the Houston Astros. Now you can find a different version of The Killer B’s on the Bakersfield College baseball team.
Casey Brown, Jeff Burleson, and Brandon Boren, who are all batting around .400 this season, make up the BC baseball team’s version of The Killer B’s.
“We grew up playing with each other and kind of feeding off each other since we were younger, playing on little travel teams and playing against each other,” Brown said.
Burleson said that their success this season could be attributed to their hard work over the last couple of years. “We have put in a lot of time here at BC, including on the field. It’s a tribute to our coaching staff and the hard work that we put in together.”
Brown, Burleson, Boren all think that their nickname is not really that unique, but added that it is pretty cool.
“We never thought they would put it together and end up making it the ‘Killer Bees’ or anything like that,” said Brown, adding, “I think it’s kind of cool because we are all right there by each other in the lineup. We all just feed off of each other’s at-bats.”
The trio plans to play baseball after completing their careers at BC. “I signed early with Oral Roberts so I plan to play baseball after this. I’ll just take it as far as all the work I put in takes me. Hopefully it takes me further than what I expect,” said Burleson. Both Boren and Brown plan on continuing their careers, but they don’t know where they will be playing yet.
They feel that the hardest part of playing so often is keeping their focus and not letting their mistakes get them down. “You play so many games, you are bound to have a bad day. It’s just about coming out the next day or even the next at-bat and just forgetting the last one,” Boren said.
Brown has a good feeling about the team overall. “I feel like I am playing on an all-star team right now. We have been playing together for so long and now we are finally together.”
Head baseball coach Tim Painton feels that the trio is a pretty awesome group of guys. “They’re all two-year starters. They all had good years for us last year and continued to get better as the season went along. Going into this year there were high expectations for all three of those players. They’ve just been phenomenal to have hitting back to back to back,” Painton said.
Brown is hitting .412 with four home runs and 39 RBI. Boren is hitting .396 with two home runs and 41 RBI, and Burleson is hitting .413 and has one home run and 34 RBI.
Not counting their April 8 game against LA Mission, the Renegades are 22-11 overall and 12-5 in the Western State Conference. The Renegades’ next game is April 10 at home against Glendale at 6 p.m.