Jake Drehoff and Ashley Graeter know a little bit about the unconventional nature of baseball.
The offbeat routes that led each player to Southern Miss, where they were teammates for the 2011-12 seasons, have also helped get the former Golden Eagles reacquainted with one another in 2016. Albeit, as adversaries this time around, rather than brothers-in-arms.
On June 6, Drehoff made his third appearance for the Class AA Portland Sea Dogs, a team within the Boston Red Sox’s organization. In the bottom of the sixth inning of a scoreless game against the Hartford Yard Goats, the left-hander found himself facing Graeter, now a catcher for the Colorado Rockies’ AA affiliate.