On June 10, former Southeast Missouri State baseball player Alex Winkelman was on a baseball field, like he normally is, but this time he had his phone in hand.

Winkelman was on the field that day practicing before a game in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Cotuit Kettleers. It was also the same day as the Major League Baseball Draft.

“I was just sitting in the outfield with my phone in my hand, and I would obviously never do that, but I did that day,” Winkelman said. “I got the call and got a heads up from my agent that it was probably going to happen.”

The next call that Winkelman received is one that changed his life and finally fulfilled his dream that he had since he was 5 years old, which was playing professional baseball.

“Then [the Houston Astros] called and told me that they picked me and congratulated me, and then my phone kind of blew up after that,” Winkelman said. “I made sure I called my mom and dad and my sister, then I called [Southeast baseball coach Steve Bieser]. Got a couple people out of the way while I was on the field then I had to wait till after the game to talk to everyone else.”

Winkleman was selected 619th overall in the 21st round, becoming the second of Bieser’s players to be drafted. Former Redhawk Matt Tellor was selected in the 10th round of last year’s draft by the Atlanta Braves.

Winkelman came out of the bullpen on opening day for the Astros’ rookie affiliate, the Greeneville Astros, on June 23 and got a chance to pitch in the seventh and eighth inning against the Bristol Pirates.

Winkelman allowed no runs in his first appearance as a professional baseball player and only allowed one hit while striking out three batters.

He earned his first start on July 8 and only loss thus far in his professional career against the St. Louis Cardinals’ rookie affiliate Johnson City.

“I got through it with I guess a little bit of luck maybe, but it wasn’t as good as normal, took the loss, but then after that I guess a couple guys liked what they saw and then I got called up right after the start,” Winkelman said. “It wasn’t exactly a pitch perfect start.”

Now with the Astros’ Class A Short Season affiliate, the Tri-City ValleyCats, Winkelman is 5-0 with a 1.63 ERA and has pitched a total of 27 2/3 innings.

Winkelman couldn’t recall the first time he had ever held a baseball, but there are pictures at his home in Crystal City, Missouri, of him holding one when he was 2 years old. He watched baseball on television growing up and that’s how he narrowed down to what he wanted his dream to be and began playing little league baseball.

Bieser got the chance to see Winkelman all the way from when he was a youth player to high school since Bieser coached against him a number of times in summer leagues.

“From a physical standpoint you could see there was a lot of growth to happen yet and that was going to take place in his college years,” Bieser said. “I really projected him as a guy who had a great, a very high ceiling and a great opportunity to reach his dream of playing professional baseball. He put in all the work necessary to be very successful and kudos to him because that was his goal, he didn’t let anything sidetrack him from his goal.”

Bieser said that he and his staff at Southeast have a goal in place to try and give each of their players an opportunity to play professional baseball and added that every one of his players that comes through Southeast has the desire to play on the professional level.

Winkelman attended Crystal City High School where he earned All-State accolades his senior year and won a state championship in 2010.

The Redhawks won back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference championships in his final two seasons when he had a combined record of 10-5 and 154 strikeouts.

Winkelman led the team in strikeouts his sophomore year with 62 and was in second his junior and final year as a Redhawk with 92 behind junior transfer Joey Lucchesi who recorded 93.

Winkelman also had the second lowest ERA both his sophomore and junior seasons with a 3.48 his sophomore year and a 4.32 last season.

“I really had to figure out what kind of pitcher I was beyond high school and learned to at least stay out on the plate someway and work on control and offspeed pitches,” Winkelman said. “Over the three years I think I developed into more of a pitcher instead of a thrower. That’s big thing as far as on the baseball side of what I learned in college baseball.”

Winkelman said that the reason he chose Southeast out of all of his other college offers was because of Bieser. He holds him in the highest regard and because he felt like Bieser could develop him into the player he wanted to be.

“He’s honest with what you have to do to get better, and he’s just a good guy, a good coach all the way down to Coach Lawson and Coach Rhodes as well,” Winkelman said. “They did a really good job of just helping me develop as a player and they’re also concerned about your well being.”

Bieser said that every player in the minor league level has the ability to make it on a major league roster, but that it takes ultimately takes perseverance.

He knows this from experience because he also was drafted in 1989 by the Philadelphia Phillies but didn’t make his major league debut until 1997 with the New York Mets.

“It takes being able to handle those ups and downs, and that’s something that’s tough to handle,” Bieser said. “You’ve got to be strong mentally, you’ve got to be strong physically and the biggest thing is that you’ve got to be willing to put the sacrifices there and be willing to outwork anybody else.”

Playing in a total of 60 games in the majors for his career, Bieser had a career .250 batting average and also had a perfect fielding percentage while playing every position on the field for both the Mets and in 1998, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Bieser said that players are always gunning to be the next man up, but with the integrity and perseverance that he and his staff instill into their team, players like Winkelman have the ability to see through the adversity.

Bieser went on to say that Winkelman is a reserved guy and that the professional scouts were looking at him in two ways, “Is he just that calm or does he not really care because he’s just so laid back?”

According to Bieser, there’s not a lot of “Rah, rah” in Winkelman’s game, but what he has that separates him from others is his quiet confidence.

“He’s very confident in himself and he’s also very hard on himself, and he wants to be at his best all the time. He really pushes himself to be at his best,” Bieser said. “He was an outstanding teammate here, he supported his fellow players and I think especially on the pitching staff. A lot of that staff looks at him as a model the way that he kind of went about his business.”

With the ValleyCats’ season ending on Sept. 7 and with less than 20 games left for Winkelman, he doesn’t want to have any letdowns and hopes to finish strong.

“Keep up with what I’ve been doing well and just kind of keep the foot on the gas pedal for the most part,” Winkelman said. “As far as goals, obviously like I said I just take it day-by-day and keep working hard to get through the end of the season.”