Our Story

In the year 2000, a woman (and personal friend) by the name of Lori Lynn purchased a bakery business from Bob Alkire of Alkire's Bakery in Washington Court House, Ohio. The bakery had been owned and operated by 3 brothers for over 30 years. The brothers built a strong reputation for delicious, scratch-made donuts, cookies, pastries, and more! They developed their own recipes and produced high-quality baked goods. Their bakery was a community staple.

One by one the brothers retired. Upon the final brother's retirement and sale of the business to Lori, she moved the bakery about 20 minutes southeast to the little town of Leesburg, Ohio. Bob personally trained Lori on the donut-making process the brothers had developed and wished her luck. Lori Lynn's Bakery was born!

Over the years the bakery changed ownership a few times before being closed permanently (so they thought) in late 2012. Then along came the mother-daughter duo of Sue and Casey. With the help of GROW Highland County, an enterprise facilitation program that fosters entrepreneurship and small business development within Highland County, a business plan was developed and the bakery was purchased.

The bakery immediately became a family affair. A full-scale renovation of the storefront and production areas commenced with the help of husband/dad, Rick, of RSP Professional Services. With the help of her siblings and BrnDigital (the online media management company owned by her childhood best friend), Casey launched a full re-branding effort for the bakery including name, tagline, logos, and theme! Highland County is part of REDS country and this family has a long-running love of baseball and softball. It was a grand slam idea: Batter Up Bakery was born!

Lori graciously jumped in to teach the Batter Up team all that she had learned when she first opened the bakery. Work began to decipher and bring back the Alkire brothers' recipes that had long since been retired from production. After months of hard work, Batter Up Bakery had its opening day on Aug 10, 2013, to a line of customers down the block.

In the years since much has been learned about the nuances of the baking business. In 2015, drawing on Casey's experience in corporate market research and Sue's food science knowledge as a Family & Consumer Sciences teacher, the team initiated a process improvement effort and eliminated 90+% of the waste in their processes and products. "Big Red Machine" took on a whole new meaning for this bakery family!

Innovation is a cornerstone of the bakery business. New product ideas, process changes, local partnerships, and an ever-expanding market keep this team in continuous game-plan mode. Stay in your seat as the chase to be the "grand champion of bakeries" continues to play out for YOU the fans! The best is ALWAYS yet to come.