Former Pitt State players Bonnel, Carr pursue coaching careers

Former Pitt State baseball players, Austin Bonnel and Caleb Carr, are pursuing careers in coaching.

“I’ve learned a lot throughout playing that I want to instill with these younger guys,” Bonnel says. “I wish what I know now, I knew four or five years ago when I was playing.”

The duo has joined the Joplin Outlaws coaching staff for the summer.

“Sharing my knowledge with these kids is awesome,” Bonnel says. “I just want them to play hard. That’s the only way to play this game. If they play hard and we make mistakes going hard, 100 percent, I’m completely fine with that. I want to see these guys get better. It’s not about me, it’s about these guys.”

After the summer, Bonnel will be a volunteer assistant at Butler Community College, while Carr is heading back to Pitt State to join head coach Bob Fornelli.

“When coach Fornelli called me about [transferring] to Pitt State, I talked to him about becoming a coach and wanting to coach and he told me he’d help me out,” Carr says. “He’s given me an opportunity to help out Pitt State next year. I’m just grateful that he’s given me that opportunity and taken me under his wing. I hope I can give some of my knowledge off to the players. I’m hoping we can achieve something that we never got to achieve at Pitt State: a conference championship and a regional. I think that’d be awesome for the program to get there.”

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