Aikins Brothers Compete Internationally

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By Tara Cangialosi
It was not the average summer of baseball for Louis and Andrew Aikins.
After a long year of training and a spring season filled with rigorous practices and games, a summer of rest would seem fitting.
The brothers, both right-handed pitchers, instead opted to travel overseas with Old World Baseball, an organization that provides playing opportunities in Europe for talented college-level players.
“The head coach of the team is my college coach,” said Louis Aikins, a rising sophomore and conference starter this past spring at Ursinus College. “He invited me and my brother to play.”
The brothers flew to Europe July 5 with other American ballplayers from around the country, some coming from as far as California.
For nearly two and a half weeks, Louis, Andrew and their teammates traveled to England, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Prague to compete against highly touted European professional and national teams, while also visiting tourist attractions in each country.
The players only had one practice in order to meet each other before the trip. The experience in Europe would test how well they would mesh, solely based on how they performed on the field.
The group combined to form two teams, the Old World Baseball Lords and the Old World Baseball Knights. The brothers competed for the Knights and finished 7-3, with losses coming only from the professional teams.
“The pro teams in Sweden surprised us,” said Andrew Aikins, who will begin his freshman year at Skidmore College this fall. “There were some pretty good ball clubs over there.”
The teams faced a total of nine international opponents throughout the trip, and came out highly successful against some of Europe’s best talent.
For the Aikins brothers, the experience was special because it brought the two together on the baseball field for the first time in years.

They spent high school apart, with Louis playing for Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School and Andrew for St. Rose High School in Belmar.
After Louis graduated from RFH in 2012, he spent a year at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., before heading to Ursinus last fall.
“I wanted to get better and develop more as a player so that I could work on things before I got to college, and then take off from there,” he said.
Andrew followed a similar path to his brother, as he graduated from St. Rose in 2013, and then attended the Pomfret School in Connecticut this past year.
“Pomfret helped me first as a student, and second as an athlete,” he said. “It helped me manage my time between scholastics and sports.”
Both Louis and Andrew will leave for their respective universities at the end of the summer, where they will prepare to play fall ball and work out throughout the winter. Though the trip was short, both players believe the international experience will benefit them on the diamond.
“It had been a very long time since being on the same team with Louis,” Andrew said. “It was a great playing experience overall.”