Kyler Fedko drew the assignment of picking up fast food for his UConn baseball teammates at a burger place nearby. There was confusion when he got there. The name mistakenly written on his order was “Skyward.”
The way baseball nicknames evolve, sky, ward, “And somehow,” Fedko said, “Skyward turned into “The Warden. … I haven’t heard that since my UConn days.”
Fedko slugged his way through college, hitting .330 with 19 homers and 88 RBI in 119 games with the Huskies. Now that he is in Double A, on his way to clearing that traditionally biggest hurdle on the way to the major leagues, “skyward” may actually be a more fitting name. That’s the direction he’s hitting the ball and appears to be moving professionally. Skyward, Fedko is leading the Texas League with 11 home runs as the Wichita Wind Surge, the Twins’ affiliate, plays out a weeklong series at Northwest Arkansas.
From a modest beginning in CT, Patrick Agyemang is returning home a soccer sensation with USMNT
“It’s been really fun,” Fedko said, before getting to the ballpark on Friday. “I give a lot of the credit just to showing up at the park every day and trying to have fun. It’s my fourth year of pro ball, so I kind of know the ropes, know what to expect. It’s been a really comfortable year.”
Fedko, a right-handed hitting outfielder, usually leads off for manager Brian Dinkelman, as he’s shown good patience at the plate, drawing 35 walks and maintaining a .377 on-base percentage. He’s batting .238, but hasn’t been overly strikeout prone, with 39 in his first 199 plate appearances. He has nine stolen bases in 12 tries.
Power, patience and speed in Double A add up to a hitter who is going places. The Twins have had a thing for UConn’s program, drafting Fedko in the 12th round in 2021, Pat Winkel in the ninth round that year, Anthony Prato in the seventh round in 2019, and signing pitcher Devin Kirby, who’s trying to make it as a knuckleballer in Class A.
“I saw him in spring training and six balls went to the backstop, they just couldn’t catch it,” Fedko said.
Prato, an infielder, is hitting .306 at Triple A St. Paul, and Winkel, a catcher, is hitting .279 with five homers in 19 games there. Any of those three is just a good hot streak, or an injury in Minnesota, from joining the Twins, who are chasing Detroit and a wild card spot from the AL Central.
“I think (the UConn-Twins pipeline) is a culture thing,” Fedko said. “The people before me laid the groundwork, for Winkel, for Prato, and then we’ve laid the groundwork for guys who are at UConn now. You’ve got to thank the people before you because they showed it could be done in the Northeast, then we came along and showed it could be done.
“It’s a culture thing, a Jim Penders thing, a (Jeff) Hourigan thing, they do it the right way, get us ready the right way, a killer instinct is something that’s ingrained in you.”
Hourigan, UConn’s long-time hitting coach, is both dogged and detailed, and Fedko, still feels the benefits.
“He is a guy where, failure is not going to be accepted,” Fedko said, “and his mentality is the biggest thing I’ve taken with me since I’ve been out of UConn. If you go 0 for 4 one day, most guys would just brush it off, but Hourigan, he would be on your butt the next day trying to fix it.”
Fedko followed his brother, Christian, to UConn from Gibsonia, Pa., where their father, John, was a TV sportscaster. After joining the Twins’ organization, he played at Fort Myers, Fla., and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, before joined Wichita last season, hitting .227 with three homers in 77 games. It’s been more like “The Warden” version of Fedko in 2025.
Dom Amore: ‘He controls the room.’ How OKC’s Mark Daigneault developed coaching voice at UConn
“The first week of this season I was talking to my agent (Mark Meisner), and I’d hit one or two homers, and I was like,’ Dude, I feel really good, this could honestly be my year,’” Fedko said, “And he said, ‘Yeah, it is your year.’ So the first week, I kind of had a feeling something was going to happen.”
Fedko homered in three consecutive games, May 16-18, and hit two in a game May 27. Keeping up with the 140-game grind was his biggest adjustment in the pros, and he’s found a formula that starts with getting enough sleep. Fedko got a day off on Thursday, then started Friday with a lift at 10 a.m., then the team’s Bible Study at noon, “and then I get to the park and it’s a circus,” he said.
The mental formula that worked well for him at UConn is still in play. Meet the day with enthusiasm, with his booming, son-of-a-broadcaster’s voice, knowing by sundown he’ll be playing baseball again. The career is headed skyward, but Wichita, or, this week, Fayetteville, Ark., is where his cleats are, and where his mind is, right?.
“Oh, my God,” he said. “Coming from a spot (in college) where you play two or three times a week to a place where you’re playing just about every day, you wake up and … it’s unbelievable. It’s unbelievable.”
This week, the Wind Surge are facing former East Catholic-Manchester lefty Frank Mozzicato, the Royals’ first-round pick in 2021, twice. He threw five innings of two-hit ball on Tuesday, and will start in the series finale Sunday.
More in your Sunday Read:
Honor for Ex-Charger Vitale
Joe Vitale of North Haven, who has finished a highly decorated football and academic career at the University of New Haven, with a long list of community service, was named the Northeast 10 Conference Man of the Year this week.
Vitale, who is planning a career in medicine, received the award in New Hampshire with former Chargers coach Chris Pincince, who was let go in May after the move to Division I, there in support.
“In my eyes you will go down as the greatest New Haven coach to ever wear the whistle,” Vitale told Pincince in his acceptance speech. “… I can confidently look forward with the lessons I have, especially moving forward in med school, and know that if I stay true to the values I learned while I was in this program I’ll be able to make even better memories in the future.
Sunday short takes
*Former UConn ace Austin Peterson (4-2, 1.47 ERA) is lined up to start for the Guardians’ Double A affiliate, Akron, against the Yard Goats on Wednesday at Dunkin’ Park.
*UConn baseball coach Jim Penders has quite a haul of in-state talent coming in, with Wethersfield’s Cam Righi, the Gatorade Player of the Year, Brookfield’s Matt McDowell, Woodstock’s Brady Ericson and Hamden Hall’s Logan Charboneau, an East Haven native.
*A grand total of four of those 13 SEC teams that just had to make the NCAA baseball field of 64 advanced out of the regionals.
*ECSU will name its baseball stadium for legendary coach Bill Holowaty in a ceremony June 28 at 11 a.m. Holowaty coached from 1967-2012, winning 72.7 percent of his games and four D-III national championships.
*BYU in Boston, Illinois in New York, those are two prime dates for a Larry David-UConn men’s basketball reunion. We all know we need it.
*Have seen “The Peep” floated as a possible nickname for PeoplesBank Arena, formerly known as the Civic and XL Center. Still debating whether or not I like it.
*Four from UConn: Josh Mooney and Diarmuid O’Connor (decathlon), Maresa Hense (heptathlon) and Enaji Muhammad (high jump) will be competing in the NCAA track and field championships Wednesday-Saturday in Oregon.
*Now that the front office posse finally got Tom Thibodeau out with the Knicks, after a long campaign, it’s not a surprise Jason Kidd is emerging as a top target, as he would be agreeable to Thibs’ guys in the clubhouse and to the turf-conscious folks who have ownership’s ear.
With Dallas owning the No.1 pick, it would be tough to walk away from Cooper Flagg, but Kidd might just do it, since the Eastern Conference would provide a more do-able path to the NBA Finals. Should tap the breaks on the “championship window” talk in New York, though. The Celtics won’t have Jayson Tatum, but the Pacers, Cavaliers and Thunder aren’t going away, are they?
Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: Former Goats skipper has lots to do, Vin Baker’s Hall allies and more
*Did you see the Rockies, who now have used 14 players who were in Double A Hartford just last season, swept the Marlins this week to improve to 12-50? … And you thought manager Warren Schaeffer was whistling in the dark when he said they were getting close.
Last word
*Top Red Sox prospect Marcelo Mayer hit his first career homer Friday, and a kid in Yankees garb caught it on the fly in the bleachers. Mayer gave the kid an autographed bat and ball and posed for pictures with his family and friends outside the clubhouse. Good all around, this is what sports and fandom should look like.
Originally Published: June 7, 2025 at 9:17 AM EDT