Saint Barbara Church in Orange, CT celebrates with parishioner Patrick Winkel who signed a contract with the Minnesota Twins after being drafted in the ninth round of the 2021 MLB Draft.
Patrick is a life-long member of the Saint Barbara Community. He has participated in many of the youth ministry programs offered by the parish including JOY, Sunday School, GOYA, Saint Barbara Summer Camp (as a Camper, Counselor and Staff member) and an Odyssey Festival Volunteer.
He also dedicates time to the Covenant Care Community Christmas Tree Ministry with his family every year. Patrick continues to serve in the Holy Altar assisting Fr. Peter Orfanakos when he is home on break.
This past season, Patrick (catcher) was an ABCA First Team All-Region performer and named a member of the Al-BIG EAST Second Team. He hit .284 with 14 doubles, 11 home runs, 42 RBI’s, 38 runs scored and threw out 13 base runners. He also led the team with three-multi-homer games and contributed 17 multi-hit games and 13 multi-RBI games.
Patrick and his brother Christopher (who was a three-year captain and holds the record of playing in the most games – 243 – in UConn history) were starters on this year’s UConn Baseball Team that won both the Big East Regular Season and Tournament Championships.