Home Buoys: Palm Coast Big Buoys win big in first home game

Several hometown players contribute in 17-5 victory over the New Smyrna Beach Gnarlies in the first-year wood-bat Orange State League.

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Brenin Striplin got the party started for the Palm Coast Big Buoys in their home opener Wednesday night, June 17, at the Indian Trails Sports Complex.

The former Flagler Palm Coast High School baseball player led off the bottom of the first inning with a double and scored the first run of the game. The Big Buoys would send 10 men to the plate in the first inning and score 13 runs over the first two innings on the way to a 17-5 victory against the New Smyrna Beach Gnarlies in a game shortened to 6½ innings by the 10-run rule.

The Big Buoys are one of four teams in the first-year Orange State League, a wood-bat summer collegiate baseball league. The other teams, in addition to the Gnarlies, are the St. Augustine Sardines and the Cocoa Tailgators.

Palm Coast (3-4) played its first six games on the road before finally coming home. A sizeable crowd greeted the team and got a chance to watch several hometown players take the field, including FPC alums Striplin, Logan Shudy, Connor May and Reggie Bass, who started on the mound and got the win for the Big Buoys. And Matanzas High School rising senior P.J. Trettner started in center field. 

Striplin, who played second base, went 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI. He had two hits in the Big Buoys’ six-run first inning. For him and many of his teammates, it was a real homecoming.


Our first game home, it was electric. And we come out, and we molly whop them. It’s awesome. It’s great.
— BRENIN STRIPLIN

“It feels amazing to be back home,” he said. “I played Little League here when I was young, till I was 13. Our first game home, it was electric. And we come out, and we molly whop them. It’s awesome. It’s great.”

While the Big Buoys were knocking out 17 hits, including four doubles, Bass pitched five innings, striking out nine batters and allowing three runs on four hits and four walks. Daniel Reyes pitched the final two innings, allowing two runs in the top of the seventh and leaving two runners on base — runners that would have stretched the 2½-hour game even longer had they come in to score.

“Reggie is doing his job,” Big Buoys head coach James Timmons said. “He's a great kid. He goes out there and he pitches and eats up those innings. If I wanted him to go out there for another two innings, he would have been able to do it and pull through for us.”

Bass, who graduated high school last month, will be pitching for Florida A&M University next season. He and Striplin grew up playing together at the Palm Coast Little League fields at the Indian Trails Sports Complex.

“It’s nice, growing up together, getting to play on the home field back together before we all go to college,” Striplin said.

Striplin, who graduated in 2025, played at NCAA Division II Pennsylvania Western University Clarion this spring. He entered the transfer portal after the season and hopes to play baseball at Daytona State College next season.

Shudy, who will be entering his sophomore season at Division III Leslie University of Cambridge, Massachusetts, had a base hit and two walks and drove in two runs and scored a run in the win. May, who will be a junior at Division III Methodist in Fayetteville, North Carolina, hit a two-run double in the second inning. And Trettner went 1-for-3 with a walk and scored a run.

The purpose of the wood-bat leagues is to give college players some summer competition using wood bats, which are used in pro leagues, instead of metal bats used in high school and college. The high scores in the Orange State League would indicate that the hitters have adapted well.

“I think the wood bats got more juice than the metal,” Striplin said.

But also, pitching has been at a premium.

“We have to work through pitchers. We can only pitch them certain times and certain amounts,” Timmons said. “So, some games end lop-sided.”

Timmons coaches a Flagler County travel baseball team for 10-12-year-olds, which is also called the Big Buoys. He was happy to see the big Big Buoys draw a large crowd in its home opener.

“There were a lot of people, and I was happy our players showed up and did what they know how to do,” he said. “The field was nice. Everything was beautiful here. I’m just happy to be close to home.”

The Big Bouys have 17 more home games on their schedule through July 26. Their next game at Indian Trails is Wednesday, July 1, which begins a stretch of seven home games in 11 days.

 

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