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Pitching for Harrisburg works for Fleck

C-K graduate back at PNG Field with Sens

This improbable homecoming was all meant to be, Angel Fleck says about the long and winding career path that has brought her son, Kaleb, back home to continue chasing his baseball dreams.

“We’re very, very excited. It’s beyond coincidence. There’s a higher power at work planning something like this for us,” Angel Fleck said Monday evening.

Kaleb Fleck was born in Altoona in 1989, grew up in Claysburg and graduated from Claysburg-Kimmel High School in 2007. Following a college career at UPJ, he began his professional career as a relief pitcher in 2012.

Now, after years of playing around the country and primarily on the west coast, Fleck has returned to Pennsylvania as a member of the Harrisburg Senators. The club was due to start a series Monday night against the Curve at Peoples Natural Gas Field, but the game was snowed out, and the two teams hope to play tonight and tomorrow.

It’s an exciting time for the Fleck family for many­ reasons, including the chance for Kaleb to finally get to play as a professional in Altoona in front of his family and friends. When he gets in a game for the Senators, Fleck will become just the second Blair County product ever to play a pro game at PNG Field (or previously Blair County Ballpark), joining Bellwood’s Ron Blazier, who pitched for Bowie in 1999.

“It’s going to be a really cool experience,” Fleck said. “It’s exciting, and at the same time it’s kind of weird. My last time playing there was in the district championship (in high school).

“I have a very large family, and I think my mom got about 60 tickets for people. And there’s friends and other people buying their own tickets. … I have gotten so many text messages and calls. The support that Iv’e gotten over the years from local people — coaches, family, friends — has just been unbelievable.”

This isn’t just a homecoming with Fleck playing in Altoona. He’s actually a rare minor leaguer who will get to play his home games while also living at home this season.

Fleck got married Jan. 6 to Nicole (Ross), who’s from Bellwood, and the couple live in Mechanicsburg, less than 10 miles from Harrisburg. Kaleb and Nicole, who also works in Harrisburg, dated for 3¢ years, and he spent those baseball seasons playing on the west coast.

“It was very hard for her to go through that,” Kaleb said.

Fleck made it as high as Triple-A with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2015, ’16 and ’17, playing in Reno, Nev. The right-hander was 4-1 with a 3.46 ERA in 42 games for Reno in 2015, putting him very much on a path to reach the big leagues, but that opportunity never came his way.

He suffered injuries that cost him time in 2016 (shoulder) and 2017 (elbow), and he posted ERAs of 5.81 and 5.30 those two seasons. The Diamondbacks sort of gave up on him, placing him on the Double-A roster for the Rule 5 draft in December, and he was selected by the Washington Nationals in the Triple-A phase of the draft.

Fleck said he had a strong spring training this year with the Nationals, allowing no runs, but when it came time to assign him to a team, there was not a spot available on the Triple-A roster. So, the 29-year-old had to deal with coming back to Double-A, where he hadn’t pitched since 2014.

“I’ll be honest with you, I was a little angry at first,” Fleck said. “It was more of a numbers thing and had nothing to performance by any means.”

There’s a big difference between the way the Nationals do things and how the Pirates do things in the minor leagues. The Nationals frequently promote players from Double-A straight to the majors, while the Pirates have not done that at all with a Curve player since 2008 (Yoslan Herrera).

Fleck knows that he’s still just “one call away” from the big leagues if he performs well with Harrisburg. He’s made one appearance so far this season and allowed one run on one hit in two innings, striking out three.

Just about any veteran minor leaguer would be bummed out going back to Double-A at age 29, but Fleck quickly came to terms with it.

“I’m not going to go into a situation with a bad attitude,” he said. “I’m going to make the most of it.”

Helping matters is that Fleck has his wonderful personal situation in Harrisburg, which puts him in a much more favorable position in that regard than just about any minor leaguer you’ll find.

“It’s just a crazy coincidence that I’d get taken by the Nationals and get sent to Harrisburg,” he said. “It will definitely be a different year.”

A wonderful year, in fact, for his family.

Angel and Brent Fleck, Kaleb’s dad, have always made a couple of trips per year to visit and watch him pitch, along with his younger sister, Lydia. Now, the Flecks will have opportunities to drive just a few miles to see him pitch in Altoona, or make the two-hour drive to Harrisburg for home games.

Things also will be easier on his grandmother, Sherrie, who Angel said would stay up late every night watching Kaleb’s west coast games on the Internet.

“It’s just beyond what we could have ever imagined at this point in his career,” Angel said. “We’ve planned trips to the west coast for the past six years, and we thought the days of him playing at the Altoona Curve were long gone. Just the way things haven fallen into place are beyond what we could have hoped for.”

This week, weather permitting, the family finally will get a chance to see Kaleb play professionally right in his own backyard.

“I can’t believe it,” his mom said. “So many things had to happen for him to have one series here in Altoona. We’re thrilled just for the people that have been so faithful, following him, praying for him daily.

“He has family and friends that have followed him daily for six years as he’s played. They’d wake up every morning, check the stats, see how he’s done. But they’ve never gotten to see him play. Right now it brings tears to my eyes that they are going to get the chance to see him play. It’s a gift, really. I’m so excited.”

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