The Beechwood Tigers will take the field for Saturday’s Kentucky All “A” Classic statewide baseball tournament quarterfinal against Sayre with a lineup full of heavy hitters and shutdown pitchers.
“We’ve been winning a lot of games lately,” said senior Matthew Cottengim. “We’re playing with a lot of confidence.”
Gametime Saturday at Daviess County High School in Owensboro is 3 p.m. If the Tigers get past Sayre, they’ll play the Walton-Verona-Lyon County winner in Sunday’s 10:30 a.m. semifinal. The final is 1 p.m. Sunday. The Tigers have won five All “A” Classic state championships, the last with back-to-back crowns in 2018-19.
“We expect some tough competition,” said Beechwood coach Kevin Gray, whose squad lost to Walton-Verona in the season opener.
The toughest day for the Tigers (14-5) has already come and gone, and it wasn’t the loss to the Bearcats or a 6-2 loss to West Clermont that dropped their record to 3-4. It was the January day coach Gray told his players about assistant coach Briley Seiter.
Though the Tigers have won six straight games and 11 of their last 12, they’ve been playing with heavy hearts and without Seiter, their pitching coach. Seiter, 27 of Erlanger, was diagnosed with a rare form of brain tumor in December.
“They call it spinal pilocytic astrocytoma,” said Briley’s mother, Stephanie Seiter. “Because of his condition, Briley’s been in the hospital a lot and unable to work. He weighed 160 pounds in college and now he weighs 116. He’s also in a fight for disability.”
Pilocytic astrocytoma is a rare type of brain tumor that grows slowly and does not typically spread to other parts of the body. It can cause significant health issues depending on its location. While pilocytic astrocytomas aren’t considered aggressive cancers, they can still require treatment, such as surgical removal, to prevent complications.
“He wasn’t feeling right for about a year, and it took the doctors a while to figure out the cause,” Stephanie Seiter said. “Then one day in December he was having stroke-like symptoms and complaining of neck pain. We rushed him to the hospital at St. Elizabeth’s. They ran all kinds of tests and saw a spot they didn’t like and sent him immediately to UC. We were stunned.”
Soon after, the family received the diagnosis and a timetable for procedures. His next scheduled procedure is in May.
“They don’t want to be too aggressive and aggravate it,” Stephanie Seiter said. “They removed about 33% of it on Jan. 3, but right now nothing is scheduled again until an MRI on May 3. After that, all his doctors will get together and decide whether chemotherapy or radiation therapy or both or neither is the best course of action so that he can have a better length of quality life.”
It’s the second medical emergency for Briley Seiter. He’s one of six children including four baseball-playing sons, three of whom played collegiately. He’s part of a large extended family of athletes and coaches that includes the Baionis of Highlands and the Pangallos at Newport Central Catholic. Former Highlands baseball coach Jeremy Baioni is Stephanie Seiter’s brother.
Like two of his brothers, Briley was affected by Chiari malformation, a condition where brain tissue extends into the spinal canal due to structural abnormalities in the skull. This can put pressure on the brainstem, leading to symptoms such as headaches, neck pain and dizziness.
Some people with the condition require surgery to relieve pressure and restore normal cerebrospinal fluid flow. Briley’s condition required a shunt being placed in his head with drain tubing running inside his body.
“Briley’s had eight previous brain surgeries,” his mother said. “When he was younger, they had to build a base between his brain and his spine because he didn’t have one. When he started getting sick about a year ago, they thought it might be related to the shunt he used to have.”
It wasn’t related to the shunt and that’s why it took doctors so long to figure out the cause.
“Briley’s always been a great kid and I’ve known him a while,” coach Gray said. “He has a tumor on his brainstem and spine. When I gave that news to the team, they were all pretty upset. Guys were crying. It’s the saddest thing. He got out of college just a couple years ago. He just got married and he’s got a 1-year-old boy.”
It was a preseason gut punch. But the Tigers soldiered on while receiving updates on Seiter’s condition. The team held a preseason fundraiser game which accepted donations that went to the Seiter family. Sales from concessions were also donated.
“I’ve loved the guy ever since I first saw him,” Gray said of the former pitcher. “He was undersized in high school and didn’t have a lot of velocity. But he got people out because he knew how to pitch, and I just thought one day he’d make a pretty good pitching coach.”
Gray wound up hiring the 2016 Bellevue grad soon after Seiter graduated from Eastern Nazarene College, where he was an all-conference pitcher.
“He’s done a nice job,” said Gray, whose staff ERA of 2.99 has fallen since he brought on Seiter a few years ago. It was 3.96 last season and 4.50 in 2023.
The fruits of Seiter’s work with Beechwood pitchers hit a high point this month in his absence. The Tigers tossed two no-hitters within a week. Senior Chase Flaherty threw a no-hitter against Bishop Brossart April 16 in an All “A” Classic sectional. Senior Lucas Cousineau no-hit Greenup County April 11.
Beechwood has quality arms at every level. Junior Branton Stiles threw five innings of one-hit baseball against Bracken County on April 17. Sophomore Caleb Arrasmith fired a one-hitter against Villa Madonna April 9. Freshman Kingston Conover has emerged as a workhorse in his first varsity season.
Hutton, a Southeastern Illinois College recruit, has taken some important tips from Seiter, a former local Division III player of the year.
“Briley himself is not a very big guy. He was a junkballer and yet he went on to pitch in college,” said Hutton. “What he tells us is you have to have the fight of a pitcher. That, no matter what, I’m going to beat you. He instilled that mindset in all of us, and it’s propelled us as a staff. Plus, if you want to know anything about off-speed stuff, he’s your man.”
The team visited with Seiter before Saturday’s road win against Simon Kenton. He was able to stay for three innings but not before sharing words of encouragement with the Tigers.
“He was so happy to see the team,” Stephanie Seiter said. “He’s all about the players. He told them to never give up because he’s not going to give up. If there’s one thing my son has proved, it’s that he’s a fighter. He will fight his way through this, and we all will be there for him and his family.”
This weekend, the Tigers aren’t just playing for another Kentucky small-school championship — they’re also playing for Briley.
“We’re going to go there and do our best,” Hutton said. “We have a lot of depth this year and a ton of dogs and we believe in our pitching 100%.”