Scores from Varsity games played Thursday, March 13:
Omaha Creighton Prep 6, Bellevue West 1
Grand Island 7, Millard North 5
Millard North 12, Grand Island 6
Papillion-LaVista South 6, Westside 3
Skutt 5, Bellevue East 1
Omaha Central 11, Wahoo 1 (5 innings)
Omaha Central 6, Wahoo 4
Lincoln Southwest 4, Beatrice 0
Omaha Bryan 15, Seward 2
Omaha Bryan 12, Seward 2
Gretna 12, Omaha Benson 0 (5 innings)
Columbus 8, Norfolk 7
Awaiting score from Millard South at Gross (if played)
Varsity games scheduled for Friday, March 14:
@ Elkhorn: Elkhorn 5, Omaha Skutt Catholic 3
@ Gretna: Papillion-LaVista South 11, Gretna 3 @ Omaha Benson: Omaha Northwest VS Omaha Benson @ Omaha North: Omaha Gross Catholic VS Omaha North @ Ralston: South Sioux City VS Ralston
Note: Coaches, Designated Team Reporters, Players and Fans can report game scores by using the "Report Your Scores" form on "Online Forms" link on Main Menu. This will help us report scores as soon as games are played rather than waiting for newspapers reports. Please report JV, Reserve and Frosh scores as well (separate form provided). Those kids work hard and deserve recognition also.
Daily Calendar
Scores from Varsity games played Friday, March 14:
@ Elkhorn: Elkhorn 5, Omaha Skutt Catholic 3
@ Gretna: Papillion-LaVista South 11, Gretna 3 @ Omaha Benson: Omaha Northwest 11, Omaha Benson 0 @ Omaha North: Omaha Gross Catholic VS Omaha North @ Ralston: Ralston 3, South Sioux City 2
Varsity games scheduled for Saturday, March 15:
(from NSAA website)
@ Beatrice: Omaha Gross Catholic VS Beatrice @ Bellevue East: Omaha North VS Bellevue East @ Blair: Elkhorn VS Blair @ Lincoln Northeast: Millard West VS Lincoln Northeast @ Lincoln Northeast: Omaha Westside 7, Lincoln NE 1 @ Lincoln Southwest: Millard West VS Lincoln Southwest @ Lincoln Southwest: Omaha Westside 11, Lincoln SW 6 @ Norfolk: Lincoln East VS Norfolk @ Norfolk: Lincoln East VS Norfolk @ Omaha Benson: Fremont Bergan VS Omaha Benson @ Omaha Benson: Fremont Bergan VS Omaha Benson @ Omaha Bryan: Millard South VS Omaha Bryan @ Omaha Burke: Omaha Central VS Omaha Burke @ Omaha Roncalli: Columbus VS Omaha Roncalli @ Omaha Roncalli: Columbus VS Omaha Roncalli @ Papillion-LaVista: Papillion-LaVista 11, Omaha South 1 @ Ralston: Millard North VS Ralston @ Wahoo: Norris VS Wahoo @ Wahoo: South Sioux City VS Norris @ Wahoo: South Sioux City VS Wahoo
Notes:
1. Missing Score from Gross @ North
2. South Sioux City played Ralston close in the program's first game. Welcome to spring baseball, Cardinals.
3. OWH incorrectly reports Central losing to Pius, 4-0. Central was idle.
4. OWH reports Papio-LaVista 3, Lincoln Northeast 2, game does not appear on schedule of either team
Daily Calendar for Sunday, March 16, 2008
Scores from Varsity games played Saturday, March 15:
@ Lincoln Northeast: Millard West 18, Lincoln Northeast 1 @ Lincoln Northeast: Omaha Westside 7, Lincoln NE 1 @ Lincoln Southwest: Millard West 9, Lincoln Southwest 4 @ Lincoln Southwest: Omaha Westside 11, Lincoln SW 6 @ Omaha Benson: Fremont Bergan 17, Omaha Benson 7 @ Omaha Bryan: Millard South 17, Omaha Bryan 5 @ Omaha Roncalli: Omaha Roncalli 3, Columbus 2 @ Papillion-LaVista: Papillion-LaVista 11, Omaha South 1 @ Norfolk: Norfolk 2, Lincoln East 1
@ Norfolk: Lincoln East 15, Norfolk 6
@ Omaha Burke: Omaha Central VS Omaha Burke (ppd) @ Beatrice: Omaha Gross Catholic VS Beatrice @ Bellevue East: Omaha North VS Bellevue East @ Blair: Elkhorn VS Blair
@ Ralston: Millard North VS Ralston @ Wahoo: Norris VS Wahoo @ Wahoo: South Sioux City VS Norris @ Wahoo: South Sioux City VS Wahoo
Varsity games scheduled for Monday, March 17:
(from NSAA website)
4:30 @ Beatrice: Wahoo VS Beatrice 4:30 @ Nebraska City: Maryville, MO VS Nebraska City
@ Fremont Bergan: Lincoln North Star VS Fremont Bergan @ Norfolk: South Sioux City VS Norfolk @ Norris: Crete VS Norris @ Omaha Benson: Papillion-LaVista VS Omaha Benson @ Omaha Burke: Lincoln East VS Omaha Burke @ Omaha North: Seward VS Omaha North @ Omaha Roncalli Catholic: Nebraska City VS Omaha Roncalli Catholic @ Papillion-LaVista South: Omaha Gross Catholic VS Papillion-LaVista South @ Ralston: Beatrice VS Ralston
Also: Grand Island at Lincoln Southeast, 5:00pm
Notes:
1. Awaiting scores from Beatrice vs. Wahoo and Neb City vs. Maryville, MO (if played). All other games scheduled for Monday were cancelled or postponed due to weather.
2. Grand Island (1-1) at Lincoln Southeast (0-0) today (5:00pm) should be a dandy. Kash Kalkowski, widely regarded as the top pitcher and position player in the state, is scheduled to be on the mound for the Islanders. Fellow Husker recruit Jake Kuebler is likely to get the start in the season opener for Southeast.
3. Best wishes to Crete and Norris who both play the inaugural games of their new spring baseball programs as they go head-to-head today at 4:30 at Norris. One of the teams will come away with a first-game win for the new program.
Daily Calendar for Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Scores from Varsity games played Tuesday, March 18:
Lincoln North Star 16, Fremont Bergan 4 (5 inn) Omaha Burke 7, Lincoln East 3 Omaha Roncalli Catholic 2, Nebraska City 1
Papillion-LaVista South 11, Omaha Gross Catholic 4
Ralston 8, Beatrice 2
Grand Island 8, Lincoln Southeast 2
Lincoln Southeast 12, Grand Island 0 (5 inn)
Norris 7, Crete 6 (9 inn)
Thunderbolt Invitational
@Kiwanis
Millard West 10, Lincoln Pius 6
Millard West 7, Blair 0
Millard South 10, Blair 0
@Den Hartog
Bellevue East 5, Lincoln Northeast 2
Elkhorn 10, Bellevue East 2
Elkhorn 7, Central 6 (8 inn)
Lincoln Northeast 11, Central 2
Unreported Scores:
@ Omaha North: Seward VS Omaha North
@ Norfolk: South Sioux City VS Norfolk @ Omaha Benson: Papillion-LaVista VS Omaha Benson
Varsity games scheduled for Wednesday, March 19:
@ Lincoln High: Papillion-LaVista VS Lincoln High @ Millard North: Omaha North VS Millard North @ Omaha Bryan: Papillion-LaVista South VS Omaha Bryan @ Omaha Burke: Bellevue West VS Omaha Burke @ Omaha Northwest: Omaha South VS Omaha Northwest
Thunderbolt Invitational
@Den Hartog
11:00 Blair VS Bellevue East
1:00 Millard West VS Elkhorn (for 1st place)
3:00 Millard South VS Lincoln Northeast
5:00 Lincoln Pius X VS Omaha Central
Hardy Lincoln Northeast students bundle up against a cold north wind at Den Hartog Field to support the Rockets at the Thunderbolt Invitational on Tuesday.
Game Notes:
1. Congratulations to both Norris and Crete for an outstanding first game between the two fledgling programs. Norris takes the win, 7-6 in 9 innings.
2. Elkhorn and Millard West both win two games at the Thunderbolt Invitational to set up the first place game today at 1:00.
3. New Burke High Head Coach Bruce Palmer gets a win in the Bulldog's season opener against Lincoln East, 7-3.
4. A sizeable contingent of pro scouts was on hand to see Grand Island vs. Lincoln Southeast.
5. Nice job by Nebraska City to hold Roncalli scoreless until Mike Nowak's walk-off two run shot in the bottom of the 7th. Let's find out who was on the mound for Nebraska City. (update: Just as I thought. See Item #15 below)
Outstanding Performances:
1. Kendall Wehrle, Stephen Bougher, and Brian Donohoe combined for 8 hits and 5 rbis for PLVS against Gross.
Bellevue East's Ryan Keele drives a ground ball through the infield for one of his four hits in the Chieftan's loss to Elkhorn.
2. Eric Dreesen of Elkhorn was 2 for 3 with 4 RBI's against Bellevue East and picked up the win in relief against Central.
3. Vince Aurora of Elkhorn was 3 for 3, with a run scored, 4 RBI's and the game winning hit in the bottom of the eighth against Central.
4. Ryan Keele of Bellevue East had seven hits in two games in the Thunderbolt Invitational.
5. Cory Buckley of Bellevue East tossed a complete game with 12 strikeouts against Lincoln Northeast.
6. Erik Buckallew of Burke went 2 for 3 with 4 RBI's and a double in the win over East.
7. Kash Kalkowski of Grand Island had four hits and earned the win over Lincoln Southeast, striking out seven and giving up only four hits over five innings.
8. Jake Kuebler of Lincoln Southeast no-hit the Islanders for four innings and had three hits in the game. Teammates Tye Powers and Nate Cech also had three hits.
9. John Branum and Zach Ziemba each had three hits, scored three runs and had two RBIs to lead the Lincoln North Star over Fremont Bergan.
10. Colton Thomas had 3 RBI's in six innings for Millard South against Blair.
11. Keep an eye on the Bass Brothers at Millard West. Sophomore Brett Bass and senior Steve Jensen combined for five RBI's against Pius, while Brandon Bass, Brett's older brother, a junior, had two hits and scored four times. Brett and Brandon each doubled in the game.
12. Mike Tomlinson threw five scoreless innings against Blair, while Steve Szalweski had four hits in the game.
13. Ralston's Kory Robertson had three hits, including a three-run home run, and scored three runs in the win against RCC rival Beatrice.
14. Mike Nowak pitched five innings of one-hit ball and hit a two-run walk-off home run as Roncalli came from behind to get a 2-1 win over Nebraska City. Sophomore lefty Alex Terry had two hits and picked up his first varsity win in relief.
15. Nebraska City Sophomore lefty Logan Ehlers struck out 11 Roncalli hitters and allowed only three hits in six innings.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
Daily Calendar for Thursday, March 20, 2008
Scores from Varsity games played Wed., March 19:
@ Lincoln High: Papillion-LaVista 3, Lincoln High 2 @ Millard North: Millard North 7, Omaha North 2 @ Omaha Bryan: Papillion-LaVista South 9, Omaha Bryan 1 @ Omaha Northwest: Omaha Northwest 9, Omaha South 0
@ Omaha Gross: Creighton Prep 2, Gross 0
Thunderbolt Invitational
@Den Hartog
Bellevue East 6, Blair 0
Millard West 15, Elkhorn 3 (5 innings) (1st place)
Millard South 13, Lincoln Northeast 6
Millard South 15, Pius 8
Lincoln Pius X 9, Omaha Central 1
Varsity games scheduled for Thursday, March 20:
4:00 @ Omaha North: Omaha Westside VS Omaha North 4:30 @ Bellevue East: Papillion-LaVista South VS Bellevue East 4:30 @ Bellevue West: Papillion-LaVista VS Bellevue West 4:30 @ Wahoo: Seward VS Wahoo 5:00 @ Lincoln High: Beatrice VS Lincoln High 5:00 @ Lincoln North Star: Norfolk VS Lincoln North Star 5:00 @ Millard North: Millard South VS Millard North 5:00 @ Millard West: Omaha Bryan VS Millard West 5:00 @ Omaha Burke: Omaha Benson VS Omaha Burke 5:00 @ Omaha Creighton Prep: Omaha South VS Omaha Creighton Prep
5:30 @ Fremont Bergan: Nebraska City VS Fremont Bergan 6:30 @ Douglas County West: Elkhorn VS Douglas County West
7:00 @ Lincoln North Star: Norfolk VS Lincoln North Star
Game Notes and Comments:
1. Congratulations to Millard West for winning the Thunderbolt Invitational in convincing fashion. Due to schedule changes, Millard South, also 3-0 in the tournament, was not in the championship game.
2. Undefeated Papillion LaVista South seems to be getting contributions from lots of guys. Kendall Wehrle is playing very well, but it's far from a one man show. The Titans and Bellevue East play today at 4:30 at Roddy Field in Bellevue.
3. Gross outhit Prep 6-5 in a 2-0 loss to the Junior Bluejays. Wondering how many innings Ryan Crnkovich threw for Gross.
4. It's March; for every wind-aided home run one day, there's a potential Big Fly kept in play by the wind the next.
5. Papillion LaVista will certainly miss standout senior Colby McCord this spring but is getting nice offensive production from Josh Tietsort, Brian Pruch and Brett Anders. The Monarchs are 3-0.
6. The new Obstruction Rule was enforced against Central Wednesday evening as catcher Ben Chonis was ruled to have improperly blocked home plate while in the act of receiving a throw. Chonis came up the third base line to await and receive the throw which was slightly off line. Simultaneously with receiving the ball, he kneeled down and applied the tag. Obstruction was ruled and the run allowed. See details on the new rule in the article below. Sometimes, as in this case, it's a close call whether it's a permissible "train wreck" situation, where the ball, runner and defender all arrive at the same place at the same time, or whether the defender obstructed access to the plate or bag. Understanding the rule is just half the battle; you still have to get the umpire to call it your way.
7. Hope everyone saw the excellent full page spread in this morning's Omaha World Herald for spring baseball. We dabble around here, but Mike Patterson is a pro and has excellent resources available to him; very nice work. Nice photo by Laura Inns, too. For my money, she is the best sports shooter in town. Please send an email to OWH Sports Editor Thad Livingston telling him how much you appreciate the coverage for high school baseball and hope to see more, particularly more photo coverage by Laura Inns.
Outstanding Performances:
1. Danny Pierce of Bellevue East threw a complete game 2-hit shutout against Blair striking out 10 and walking only 1.
Two Out Rally: Millard South 2nd baseman Dylan Vogt scores in the decisive sixth inning against Lincoln Northeast as Rocket catcher Mike Nietfeldt awaits the throw and teammate Andy Peacock looks on. The Patriots scored 7 runs with two outs in the inning to break a 6-6 tie and finish undefeated (3-0) in the Thunderbolt Invitational.
2. Adam Molinaro of Pius hit a two-run homer and struck out 8 of the first 11 hitters he faced against Central.
3. Sean Hoover, Steve Jensen and Jon Schneider of Millard West each homered for the Wildcats against Elkhorn. Teammate Jesse Vervelde had 3 hits and 3 RBI's in the game.
4. Adam Dunaway of PLVS two-hit Bryan for 4 innings and had a bases loaded triple.
5. Joe Holtmeyer, Josh Raburn and Shawn McKenna of Prep combined for a 7 inning shutout againsg Gross. Teammate Joe Kankovsky had a solo homer. Keep an eye on Kankovsky, a junior outfielder and pitcher.
6. Colton Thomas of Millard South had a home run and three RB'Is against Pius and three doubles against Lincoln Northeast.
7. Northwest's Ryan Leffler held Omaha South to two hits in five innings for the win as Northwest improves to 2-0.
8. Blake Brisson scored 3 runs while teammates Brett Koehn and Eric Ringblom added two RBI's for Millard North in a 7-2 win over Omaha North.
9. Omaha North sophomore Jason Combes gave up only one unearned run in 4 innings of work against the Mustangs.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
Daily Calendar for Friday, March 21, 2008
Scores from Varsity games played Thurs., March 20:
@Omaha North: Omaha Westside 11, Omaha North 1 (5) @ Bellevue East: Papillion-LaVista South 12, Bellevue East 2 @ Gretna: Omaha Roncalli 5, Gretna 4
@ Bellevue West: Papillion-LaVista 12, Bellevue West 2 @ Lincoln North Star: Lincoln North Star 7, Norfolk 1
@ Lincoln North Star: Lincoln North Star 1, Norfolk 0
@ Lincoln High: Lincoln High 9, Beatrice 6 @ Millard West: Millard West 7, Omaha Bryan 3 @ Omaha Burke: Omaha Burke 14, Omaha Benson 2 @ Fremont Bergan: Fremont Bergan 13, Nebraska City 2
@ Douglas County West: Elkhorn 21, Douglas County West 5 (5)
@ Lincoln Southeast: Lincoln East 7, Lincoln Southeast 5
Calvary Chapel Tournament (Skutt Roadtrip to Vegas)
Mountain View 14, Omaha Skutt 5
Omaha Skutt 10, Las Vegas Gorman 9
Varsity games scheduled for Friday, March 21:
9:00 @ Las Vegas: Skutt VS Las Vegas Rancho
Noon @ Las Vegas: Skutt VS Coronado HS
3:00 @ Lincoln High: Lincoln East VS Lincoln High 4:30 @ Millard South: Omaha Westside VS Millard South 4:30 @ Omaha South: Douglas County West VS Omaha South
5:00 @ Papillion-LaVista South: Lincoln Southwest VS Papillion-LaVista South
5:00 @ Millard West: Columbus VS Millard West 7:00 @ Millard West: Columbus VS Millard West 7:00 @ Omaha Burke: Omaha Burke VS Omaha Central
Varsity games scheduled for Saturday, March 22:
11:00 @ Omaha Burke: Lincoln Southeast VS Omaha Burke
1:00 @ Lincoln North Star: Omaha Bryan VS Lincoln North Star 1:00 @ South Sioux City: Fremont Bergan VS South Sioux City
3:00 @ Lincoln North Star: Omaha Bryan VS Lincoln North Star
TBA @ Las Vegas: Skutt VS TBD
Lincoln Southwest / Gross / Grand Island Triangular 11:00 @ Lincoln Southwest: Grand Island VS Lincoln Southwest 1:00 @ Lincoln Southwest: Grand Island VS Omaha Gross Catholic 3:00 @ Lincoln Southwest: Omaha Gross Catholic VS Lincoln Southwest
Game Notes and Comments:
1. Both Papio teams are undefeated (PLVS 5-0, PLV 4-0) and playing well. Lots of guys are contributing for both teams.
2. Nice win by Skutt over Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, a highly regarded program.
3. Roncalli escapes with another one-run win in the Pride's final at bat, this time over Gretna, 5-4. Sophomore lefty Alex Terry picks up his second win in relief as Colin Higgins drove in the winning run.
4. A few lopsided scores last night. Chins up guys; it's early. Bounce back.
5. Big win for Lincoln East and Coach Mike Sterns over Lincoln Southeast last night, 7-5.
6. Nice job by Ben Homer and Millard North teammates to hold a good hitting Millard South team scoreless for five innings, and allowing only two runs in the 7-2 win.
7. No hitter by committee. Five Prep pitchers combined to no-hit South. Lefty Charlie Krueger gets his first varsity win.
Outstanding Performances:
1. Zach Weinandt of Burke hit a grand slam and drove in 5 runs against Benson.
2. Nate Smejkal of Burke, who was 10-0 on the summer, threw four shutout innings with 4 K's to earn the win against Benson.
3. Junior Tyson Clarke of Lincoln East doubled and tripled to lead Lincoln East past Southeast.
4. Anthony Dunn, Kendall Wehrle and BrianDonohoe combined for 7 hits against Bellevue East for Papillion LaVista South.
5. Payton Brannen of Skutt hit a home run and had three RBI's in the loss to Mountain View.
6. Brady Hohl and Ryan Scheetz of Millard North each had three RBI's to lead North over Millard South. Each doubled in the game.
7. Joe Bircher of Roncalli had 8 K's over five innings against Gretna, but the win went to Alex Terry in relief.
8. Millard Wests's Sean Hoover is off to a strong start on the season, this time with three hits and two RBI's against Bryan. Former middle infielder Jesse Vervelde has moved to the catcher position and added two hits and two RBI's for the Wildcats.
9. Lincoln North Star's Ricky Ideus and Zach Ziemba held Norfolk to five hits in a double-header sweep, each throwing a complete game. Ideus rang up 9 K's in a two-hitter, Ziemba struck out five while allowing three hits.
10. Westside juniors Chris Williams and Jake Rupp produced 7 RBI's on two hits apiece to lead the Warriors over Omaha North. Williams' hits were both doubles.
11. Jamie Johnson of Skutt went 3 for 4 and earned the win on the mound against Bishop Gorman. Teammates Tom Ruzicka and Corey Stringer each drove in 3 runs. Who's this Servais kid (Michael) who had the game winning hit? Son of Creighton's Ed?
12. Max Huerter of Prep gets his first varsity home run against South.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
Daily Calendar for Saturday, March 22, 2008
Scores from Varsity games played Friday, March 21:
9:00 @ Las Vegas: Las Vegas Rancho 8, Skutt 4
Noon @ Las Vegas: Coronado HS 9, Skutt 7
4:30 @ Millard South: Omaha Westside 5, Millard South 1 4:30 @ Omaha South: Douglas County West 7, Omaha South 1
5:00 @ Papillion-LaVista South: Papillion-LaVista South 4, Lincoln Southwest 1
5:00 @ Millard West: Millard West 10, Columbus 0
7:00 @ Millard West: Millard West 12, Columbus 0
7:00 @ Omaha Burke: Omaha Burke 7, Omaha Central 3
Unreported Score:
3:00 @ Lincoln High: Lincoln East VS Lincoln High
Varsity games scheduled for Saturday, March 22:
11:00 @ Omaha Burke: Lincoln Southeast VS Omaha Burke
1:00 @ Lincoln North Star: Omaha Bryan VS Lincoln North Star 1:00 @ South Sioux City: Fremont Bergan VS South Sioux City
3:00 @ Lincoln North Star: Omaha Bryan VS Lincoln North Star
TBA @ Las Vegas: Skutt VS TBD
Lincoln Southwest / Gross / Grand Island Triangular 11:00 @ Lincoln Southwest: Grand Island VS Lincoln Southwest 1:00 @ Lincoln Southwest: Grand Island VS Omaha Gross Catholic 3:00 @ Lincoln Southwest: Omaha Gross Catholic VS Lincoln Southwest
Game Notes and Comments:
1. Skutt gave up big innings late to suffer back-to-back losses in their Las Vegas tournament, allowing four runs in the bottom of the sixth to Coronado and 7 runs in the bottom of the sixth against Rancho.
2. Good game on tap this morning at Burke as the Bulldogs (3-0) host Lincoln Southeast (1-2) at 11:00. Lincoln baseball fans will get three good games at Lincoln Southwest as the Silver Hawks host Grand Island and Gross in a triangular.
3. Speaking of Burke, parent / security specialist Jim Heairet has installed a remotely operated multi-camera video capture system at the Bulldog's field to record ballgames on a digital video recorder. The days of live streaming video of Nebraska high school baseball on the internet are not far off.
4. Millard West runs its record to 8-0 with the double-header sweep. Papillion-LaVista South improves to 6-0 with the win against Lincoln Southwest, and Westside improves to 5-1 by handing Millard South its second loss in as many days. Millard South was held to a total of three runs in the two games. That's probably under Ty Kildow's personal scoring average.
5. Millard West had 17 hits in 10 innings against Columbus, 9 of which were for extra bases.
Outstanding Performances:
1. Trevor Egbarts of Douglas County West threw a complete game against South, striking out six, and also hit a triple.
2. Brett Bass of Millard West had two hits, including a triple, and two RBI's in the first game of the Columbus double-header. Mike Peterson threw a complete game shutout.
3. Tyler Niederklein of Millard West had two hits and three RBI's in the nightcap of the twinbill, and also stroked a double in the first game. Nick Standish and Anthony Meyers combined for the shutout.
4. Jake Volkman and Derek Bitzer of Burke combined for a five-hitter against Central.
5. Westside junior lefty Jake Rupp improved to 2-0, throwing a complete game and striking out six against Millard South. Teammates Kyle Hartman and Bear Opitz had 2 hits each for the Warriors.
6. Mark Harris of PLVS had 2 hits and 2 RBIs in the win over Lincoln Southwest.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
Daily Calendar for Sunday, March 23, 2008
Varsity games played Saturday, March 22:
11:00 @ Omaha Burke: Omaha Burke 5, Lincoln Southeast 0
1:00 @ Lincoln North Star: Lincoln North Star 3, Omaha Bryan 0
1:00 @ South Sioux City: Fremont Bergan 5, South Sioux City 0
3:00 @ Lincoln North Star: Lincoln North Star 2, Omaha Bryan 1
@ Las Vegas: Omaha Skutt 13, Valley HS 11
Lincoln Southwest / Gross / Grand Island Triangular 11:00 @ Lincoln Southwest: Lincoln Southwest 3, Grand Island 2 1:00 @ Lincoln Southwest: Omaha Gross Catholic 6, Grand Island 2 3:00 @ Lincoln Southwest: Lincoln Southwest 11, Omaha Gross Catholic 3
Chillin': Burke supporters braved chilly Saturday morning temperatures to cheer for the Bulldogs against Lincoln Southeast. Burke prevailed 5-0.
Varsity games scheduled for Monday, March 24:
4:30 @ Bellevue East: Omaha Burke VS Bellevue East 4:30 @ Bellevue West: Ralston VS Bellevue West 4:30 @ Papillion-LaVista South: Omaha Benson VS Papillion-LaVista South 4:30 @ Omaha Bryan: Papillion-LaVista VS Omaha Bryan
5:00 @ Columbus: Grand Island VS Columbus
5:00 @ Lincoln Southeast: Lincoln Pius X VS Lincoln Southeast
5:00 @ Millard North: Omaha Creighton Prep VS Millard North
5:00 @ Omaha Gross Catholic: South Sioux City VS Omaha Gross Catholic 5:00 @ Omaha North: Omaha Central VS Omaha North 5:00 @ Omaha Skutt Catholic: Millard West VS Omaha Skutt Catholic 5:00 @ Omaha Westside: Omaha Northwest VS Omaha Westside
5:00 @ Wahoo: Gretna VS Wahoo
5:30 @ Seward: Beatrice VS Seward
6:30 @ Blair: Omaha Roncalli Catholic VS Blair 6:30 @ Douglas County West: Fremont Bergan VS Douglas County West 7:00 @ Columbus: Grand Island VS Columbus 7:00 @ Lincoln Southeast: Lincoln Pius X VS Lincoln Southeast 7:00 @ Millard South: Omaha South VS Millard South
Game Notes and Comments:
1. "Nice pitch, Jimmy!" Burke junior reliever Jimmy McDonald entered the game against Southeast with bases loaded and one out in the top of the 7th with the Bulldogs leading 5-0 after starter Zach Weinandt gave up only his second hit of the day to Nathan Webb. McDonald preserved the win for Weinandt and earned the save by throwing one pitch to Nathan Cech, who grounded into a game-ending 4-6-3 double play. Fittingly, after moving to first base, Weinandt helped himself out by scooping a low throw out of the dirt for the final out. Burke vs. LSE game photos are on Photo Albums link on Main Menu.
2. Lincoln Southwest swept its triangular against Gross and Grand Island. Gross split on the day while Grand Island (2-4) went winless. In taking the loss against Gross Kash Kalkowski threw well but was hurt by five errors, according to GI Head Coach Rick Kissack.
3. Thirty Days to District Seeding and counting. Thanks to an NSAA administrative sleight of hand, five game days have been lopped off the spring calendar for purposes of seeding district tournaments. This year districts will be seeded ten days prior to district play rather than five days prior as in the past. This means that late season tournaments that historically played a big role in seeding districts (Millard South, Ralston and Bellevue) will have no impact on seeding districts this year. NSAA's explanation for the heist is best summarized as "administrative convenience." Teams will be assigned to districts and district tournaments will be seeded on Wednesay, April 23 based on all games played through April 22. Games played after April 22 (such as the aforementioned tournaments) will still count for purposes of determining the two Wild Card teams that will play in the State Tournament and for seeding of the State Tournament.
Outstanding Performances:
A pretty decent week: in three games this week Burke Senior Zach Weinandt hit a grand slam, had 6 RBI's, scored 2 runs and threw a 6 1/3 inning 2-hitter against Lincoln Southeast with 10 strikeouts.
1. Lincoln North Star's Jared Ryder threw a two-hit shutout with three strikeouts to pick a win over Omaha Bryan. Teammate Nate Wilder held the Bears to three hits and struck out five in the second game of the double-header sweep for the Navigators.
2. Zach Weinandt of Omaha Burke threw struck out 10 and allowed only two runs in 6 1/3 innings, earning a shut out victory over Lincoln Southeast. Teammates Conor Kingsbury and Eric Buckallew, both juniors, combined for 4 hits to lead the Bulldog offense.
3. Omaha Gross senior Brian Boro threw a six-hitter, allowing no earned runs with five strikeouts in the Cougars' 6-2 win over Grand Island in the Lincoln Southwest Triangular.
4. Fremont Bergan pitcher Josh Ostrom threw a complete game three-hitter against South Sioux City. Teammate Justin Beranek was 3 for 4 with an RBI.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
Daily Calendar for Monday, March 24, 2008
Varsity games played Saturday, March 22:
11:00 @ Omaha Burke: Omaha Burke 5, Lincoln Southeast 0
1:00 @ Lincoln North Star: Lincoln North Star 3, Omaha Bryan 0
1:00 @ South Sioux City: Fremont Bergan 5, South Sioux City 0
3:00 @ Lincoln North Star: Lincoln North Star 2, Omaha Bryan 1
@ Las Vegas: Omaha Skutt 13, Valley HS 11
Lincoln Southwest / Gross / Grand Island Triangular 11:00 @ Lincoln Southwest: Lincoln Southwest 3, Grand Island 2 1:00 @ Lincoln Southwest: Omaha Gross Catholic 6, Grand Island 2 3:00 @ Lincoln Southwest: Lincoln Southwest 11, Omaha Gross Catholic 3
Chillin': Burke supporters braved chilly Saturday morning temperatures to cheer for the Bulldogs against Lincoln Southeast. Burke prevailed 5-0.
Varsity games scheduled for Monday, March 24: (bold means Big Game O' the Day)
4:30 @ Bellevue East: Omaha Burke VS Bellevue East 4:30 @ Bellevue West: Ralston VS Bellevue West 4:30 @ Papillion-LaVista South: Omaha Benson VS Papillion-LaVista South 4:30 @ Omaha Bryan: Papillion-LaVista VS Omaha Bryan
5:00 @ Columbus: Grand Island VS Columbus
5:00 @ Lincoln Southeast: Lincoln Pius X VS Lincoln Southeast
5:00 @ Millard North: Omaha Creighton Prep VS Millard North
5:00 @ Omaha Gross Catholic: South Sioux City VS Omaha Gross Catholic 5:00 @ Omaha North: Omaha Central VS Omaha North 5:00 @ Omaha Skutt Catholic: Millard West VS Omaha Skutt Catholic 5:00 @ Omaha Westside: Omaha Northwest VS Omaha Westside
5:00 @ Wahoo: Gretna VS Wahoo
5:30 @ Seward: Beatrice VS Seward
6:30 @ Blair: Omaha Roncalli Catholic VS Blair 6:30 @ Douglas County West: Fremont Bergan VS Douglas County West 7:00 @ Columbus: Grand Island VS Columbus 7:00 @ Lincoln Southeast: Lincoln Pius X VS Lincoln Southeast 7:00 @ Millard South: Omaha South VS Millard South
Game Notes and Comments:
1. "Nice pitch, Jimmy!" Burke junior reliever Jimmy McDonald entered the game against Southeast with bases loaded and one out in the top of the 7th with the Bulldogs leading 5-0 after starter Zach Weinandt gave up only his second hit of the day to Nathan Webb. McDonald preserved the win for Weinandt and earned the save by throwing one pitch to Nathan Cech, who grounded into a game-ending 4-6-3 double play. Fittingly, after moving to first base, Weinandt helped himself out by scooping a low throw out of the dirt for the final out. Burke vs. LSE game photos are on Photo Albums link on Main Menu.
2. Lincoln Southwest swept its triangular against Gross and Grand Island. Gross split on the day while Grand Island (2-4) went winless. In taking the loss against Gross Kash Kalkowski threw well but was hurt by five errors, according to GI Head Coach Rick Kissack.
3. Thirty Days to District Seeding and counting. Thanks to an NSAA administrative sleight of hand, five game days have been lopped off the spring calendar for purposes of seeding district tournaments. This year districts will be seeded ten days prior to district play rather than five days prior as in the past. This means that late season tournaments that historically played a big role in seeding districts (Millard South, Ralston and Bellevue) will have no impact on seeding districts this year. NSAA's explanation for the heist is best summarized as "administrative convenience." Teams will be assigned to districts and district tournaments will be seeded on Wednesay, April 23 based on all games played through April 22. Games played after April 22 (such as the aforementioned tournaments) will still count for purposes of determining the two Wild Card teams that will play in the State Tournament and for seeding of the State Tournament.
4. See new Class A Top 10 and Class B Top 5 below.
Outstanding Performances:
A pretty decent week: in three games this week Burke Senior Zach Weinandt hit a grand slam, had 6 RBI's, scored 2 runs and threw a 6 1/3 inning 2-hitter against Lincoln Southeast with 10 strikeouts.
1. Lincoln North Star's Jared Ryder threw a two-hit shutout with three strikeouts to pick a win over Omaha Bryan. Teammate Nate Wilder held the Bears to three hits and struck out five in the second game of the double-header sweep for the Navigators.
2. Zach Weinandt of Omaha Burke threw struck out 10 and allowed only two hits in 6 1/3 innings, earning a shut out victory over Lincoln Southeast. Teammates Conor Kingsbury and Eric Buckallew, both juniors, combined for 4 hits to lead the Bulldog offense.
3. Omaha Gross senior Brian Boro threw a six-hitter, allowing no earned runs with five strikeouts in the Cougars' 6-2 win over Grand Island in the Lincoln Southwest Triangular.
4. Fremont Bergan pitcher Josh Ostrom threw a complete game three-hitter against South Sioux City. Teammate Justin Beranek was 3 for 4 with an RBI.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
5:00 @ Omaha Gross Catholic: Omaha Gross 11, South Sioux City 1 (5 inn) 5:00 @ Omaha North: Omaha Central 9, Omaha North 2 5:00 @ Omaha Skutt Catholic: Millard West 7, Omaha Skutt Catholic 6 5:00 @ Omaha Westside: Omaha Westside 14, Omaha Northwest 5
5:00 @ Wahoo: Wahoo 7, Gretna 0
5:30 @ Seward: Beatrice 12, Seward 2
6:30 @ Blair: Omaha Roncalli Catholic 6, Blair 5 6:30 @ Douglas County West: Fremont Bergan 12, Douglas County West 11 7:00 @ Millard South: Millard South 13, Omaha South 1 (5 inn)
7:00 @ Lincoln Southeast: Lincoln Southeast 5, Lincoln Pius X 1
7:00 @ Columbus: Columbus 10, Grand Island 9
Varsity games scheduled for Tuesday, March 25:
4:00 @ Norfolk: Lincoln High VS Norfolk
4:30 @ Beatrice: Lincoln East VS Beatrice 4:30 @ Bellevue East: Nebraska City VS Bellevue East 4:30 @ Omaha Bryan: Omaha Gross Catholic VS Omaha Bryan 4:30 @ Omaha Central: Gretna VS Omaha Central
4:30 @ Omaha Roncalli Catholic: Millard North VS Omaha Roncalli Catholic 5:00 @ Lincoln Northeast: Elkhorn VS Lincoln Northeast 5:00 @ Omaha Creighton Prep: Omaha Creighton Prep VS Lincoln Pius X 5:00 @ Omaha Home for Boys: Omaha North VS Omaha Benson 5:00 @ Omaha Northwest: Fremont Bergan VS Omaha Northwest 5:00 @ Omaha Skutt Catholic: Omaha Westside VS Omaha Skutt Catholic 5:00 @ Papillion-LaVista: Omaha Burke VS Papillion-LaVista 6:00 @ Norfolk: Lincoln High VS Norfolk
6:30 @ Douglas County West: Norris VS Douglas County West
Game Notes and Comments:
1. Class A #1 Creighton Prep downs #5 Millard North 8-2 behind a strong pitching performance by Shawn McKenna and a 12 hit attack.
2. Millard North runs the gauntlet this week. Following last night's 8-2 loss to Class A #1 Prep, the Mustangs face Class B #3 Roncalli tonight, followed by Class B #5 Skutt on Wednesday, Class A #8 Papillion LaVista on Thursday and Class A #2 Millard West on Saturday. Whew!
3. Class B #5 Skutt stranded the tying and go ahead runs in both the 6th and 7th innings against Class A #2 Millard West.
4. If this continues, Roncalli Coach Tom Kupfer will have as much white hair as his father, Herb. For the third straight game, the Class B #2 Crimson Pride came from behind to take the win in their last at bat, this time coming back from a 2-0 deficit to score 3 runs in the sixth, then giving up 3 runs in the bottom of the sixth and getting three back in the top of the seventh for the Pride's fourth consecutive one-run win, 6-5 over Class B Blair. The other wins have been against Class A Columbus and Class B Nebraska City and Gretna. The challenge gets tougher tonight as the Pride host Class A #5 Millard North at 4:30.
5. Another windy March day, and the home run count picks up. Mark Harris of Papio South had two while teammate Adam Dunaway had one, Millard South had long balls by Ty Kildow (who probably circled the bases before the ball landed), John Sorenson and Brian Harrison, Josh Ostrom of Fremont Bergan had a grand slam as did Chase Stanton of Columbus, Adam Kresl of Gross and Kash Kalkowski of Grand Island went yard and Ben Chonis of Central hit a solo jack. Bergan's Hill (first name?) also homered.
6. Exciting game at Roddy last night as the Bellevue East Chieftains rode a complete game, 9 K performance by junior Danny Pierce to hand Class A #6 Burke (3-1) their first loss of the season by a score of 2-1. Kansas State-bound lefty Ben Heairet took the loss for the Bulldogs. Kevin Gengel drove in both runs for the Chieftains.
7. Coaches: be sure to check your win-loss records on the NSAA website. Seems that our friends in Lincoln have struggled this season in the accuracy and timeliness departments (as do we from time to time). Email Jim Angele or call (402) 489-0386 with corrections as well as schedule changes and cancellations. Also, please sure to report scores and game highlights to the Lincoln Journal Star (800-742-7315 or 402-473-7431) and the Omaha World Herald (800-284-6397 or 402-444-1000). The newspapers will give space to baseball; let's take advantage of it.
Outstanding Performances:
1. Fremont Bergan's Josh Ostrom had a monster game in a one-run win over Douglas County West, going 3-4 and driving in 8 runs with a double, a triple and a grand slam home run.
2. Central's Ben Chonis drove in 3 runs on 2 hits, including a solo home run, in the Eagles' win over North. Teammate Drew Dickey was 2 for 4 with 2 RBI's, 4 stolen bases and 2 runs scored.
3. Millard West's Steve Szalewski was 2 for 3 with an inside-the-park home run, a triple and 5 RBI's to lead the Wildcats past Skutt.
4. Westside's Mike Slowiaczek had 3 hits and 4 RBI's in the win over Northwest.
See Ya. Matt Harris of Papillion-LaVista South strokes one of his two home runs in the Titan's win over Benson Monday evening. Harris also hit a triple in the game. Photo by Bill Dunn.
5. In Class A #3 Papio South's win over Benson, the Titan's Anthony Dunn had three doubles, Adam Dunaway had two doubles and a homerun, and Mark Harris had a triple and two homeruns.
6. Danny Pierce of Bellevue East struck out 9 in a complete game three-hitter over Class #6 Burke.
7. Tyler Brown of Class A # 9 Millard South struck out nine against Omaha South for his first win of the season . Teammates John Sorenson, Ty Kildow and Brian Harris hit home runs.
8. Adam Kresl of Class B #3 Gross produced 4 RBI's on a double and a home run as Tom Van Haute threw a three-hitter for the Cougars in a five inning win against South Sioux City.
9. Danny Kulus drove in 3 runs with a bases-loaded double in the top of the seventh to give Class B #2 Roncalli the win over pesky Blair.
10. Jeff Weander (2), Cody Kimball (2) and Brent Christensen (3) of Class A #8 Papillion-LaVista combined for 7 RBI's to lead Papio over Bryan.
11. Derek Landis of Ralston had three RBI's on 3 of 5 hitting and threw five innings to earn the win against Bellevue West.
12. Kerry Schachenmeyer threw a complete game two-hit shutout against Gretna as Wahoo won its first game of the season.
13. Kash Kalkowski of Grand Island went 3 for 3 with 2 walks (one intentional), two doubles and a home run in Islander's 12-10 win over Columbus in the first game of a double-header.
14. Darrick Ramaekers of Columbus was 3-3 with a double in the first game of the GI double-header and went 1-2 with 2 walks a double and 3 runs scored in the second game, a 10-9 win for the Discoverers. Teammate Kurt Farmer was 4 for 4 with a double and 3 runs scores in the game.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
Daily Calendar for Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Varsity games played Tuesday, March 25:
4:00 @ Norfolk: Norfolk 8, Lincoln High 3
4:30 @ Beatrice: Lincoln East 14, Beatrice 1 (5 inn) 4:30 @ Bellevue East: Bellevue East 10, Nebraska City 0 4:30 @ Omaha Bryan: Omaha Bryan 11, Omaha Gross Catholic 9 4:30 @ Omaha Central: Omaha Central 6, Gretna 1
5:00 @ Millard West: Millard West 11, Bellevue West 1 (5 inn) 5:00 @ Omaha Creighton Prep: Omaha Creighton Prep 16, Lincoln Pius X 6 (5 inn) 5:00 @ Omaha Home for Boys: Omaha Benson 9, Omaha North 7
5:00 @ Lincoln Northeast: Lincoln Northeast 10, Elkhorn 3
6:00 @ Norfolk: Norfolk 12, Lincoln High 2
6:30 @ Douglas County West: Douglas County West 10, Norris 1
Varsity games scheduled for Wednesday, March 26:
4:30 @ Omaha Central: Omaha Northwest VS Omaha Central 4:30 @ Omaha Roncalli Catholic: Elkhorn VS Omaha Roncalli Catholic
5:00 @ Lincoln Southeast: Lincoln Southwest VS Lincoln Southeast 5:00 @ Millard North: Omaha Skutt Catholic VS Millard North 5:00 @ Ralston: Omaha Westside VS Ralston
7:00 @ Den Hartog: Omaha Creighton Prep VS Lincoln North Star
Some rain this morning in the Metro area. We'll post any cancellations or postponements as we receive them.
If Lincoln ballfields are playable, there will be a couple of good games in the Star City this afternoon: Class A #1 Prep at Northstar and Class A #10 Southwest at contender Southeast.
Class B #2 Roncalli's challenging week continues today by hosting Class B #1 Elkhorn.
Let's get a big crowd out at Papillion LaVista South tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon at 4:30 as the undefeated Titans (7-0, Class A #3) host the undefeated Milard West Wildcats (10-0, Class A #2).
Game Notes and Comments:
1. Back-to-back wins by junior standouts Danny Pierce and Matt Tew puts Bellevue East (4-3) above .500 for the first time this year and brings a smile to Coach K's face. The Chieftains were a pre-season Top 10 pick and will beat some good teams.
2. Central battles back to .500 with a pair of wins this week after losing four straight last week. Return of teammate John Johnson has provided a lift.
3. Class B #2 Roncalli booted the ball eight times in dropping their first game of the year to Class A #5 Millard North, 13-5, giving up ten unearned runs. Roncalli hosts Class B #1 Elkhorn today at 4:30 as the Antlers come off a 10-3 loss to Northeast yesterday.
4. Class #1 Prep (5-0) and #2 Millard West (10-0) keep rolling along. Circle Monday, April 7 at 5:00 on your calendar when the two go head-to-head at Millard West.
5. Other unbeatens in Class A are: #3 Papillion-LaVista South (7-0) and # 7 Lincoln North Star (5-0). North Star and Prep battle in Lincoln at Den Hartog today, which should be a dandy. #8 Papillion-LaVista dropped out of the unbeaten ranks with a 4-3 loss to #6 Burke last night. In Class B, the only unbeaten team, #4 Ralston (3-0) will face Class A #4 Westside tonight.
6. Big win last night for unranked Bryan (3-6) in the backyard brawl with Class B #3 Gross (2-4). Both teams are better than their records indicate.
7. Benson (1-6) picked up its first win of the season last night against North (0-4).
8. Class A #6 Burke (5-1) bounces back from Monday's loss to Bellevue East with a win at #8 Papio (5-1). It should be noted that in the loss to the Chieftains, losing pitcher Ben Heairet had 12 K's in a complete game 3 hitter.
9. Prep junior Ryan Briggs, back in action on the mound after off-season ACL surgery, picked up the win against Pius with the aid of seventeen hits from teammates. Welcome back, Ryan. Oh yeah, the kid can hit, too.
10. Coaches, great job of reporting scores to the newspapers! Results from fourteen of fifteen games played yesterday were reported this morning in the Omaha World Herald. Here are those numbers one more time: Lincoln Journal Star (800-742-7315 or 402-473-7431), Omaha World Herald (800-284-6397 or 402-444-1000). Also, please note the list of "Missing Scores" at the top of the Wild Card Points standings. Probably all of these are cancelled or rescheduled games. Please email Jim Angele or call (402) 489-0386 to remove your games from list.
Outstanding Performances:
1. Bellevue East's Matt Tew threw a complete gameno-hitter with six strikeouts against Nebraska City.
Bellevue East junior right-hander Matt Tew threw a complete game no hitter with six K's Tuesday against Nebraska City.
2. Central's Derek Noel threw a complete game four-hitter with six K's against Gretna and helped earn his second win of the season with a two-run home run.
3. Bryan's Kyle Lynch, a senior transfer from Central, earned his first win of the season for the Bears and added a triple. He and teammates Nick Foreman, Marcus Madej and Jimmy Rickley accounted for nine hits, eight runs scored and eight RBI's to lead the Bears over Gross.
4. Luke Abkes and Tyler Hoffman homered for Millard North in the win over Roncalli. Lefty hurler JR Rehmann picks up his first win for the Mustangs.
5. Blake Lind of Douglas County West threw a three-hitter to earn the win over Norris.
6. Kyle Fredrickson and Alex Miller each drove in two runs for Millard West in the win over Bellevue West. Bellevue West's Foster had two doubles in the game.
7. Nate Smejkal of Burke picks up his second win of the season at Papio, running his win streak to 12 after going 10-0 for the summer. The Dawgs' Eric Furhmiester went 2 for 3 with an RBI while hot-hitting junior Eric Buckallew stroked a triple. Junior reliever Jimmy McDonald picked up his 2nd save in four days.
8. Westside's Ryan Tomlinson earned his second win of the season against Skutt, striking out six and allowing just four hits.
9. Benson's Aaron Green earned his first win by striking out eight againt North. Teammate Jamal Cotton stroked a two-run homer.
10. Northwest's Drew Yost threw a two-hitter for the win over Fremont Bergan.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
5:00 @ Lincoln Southeast: Lincoln Southeast 4, Lincoln Southwest 1
7:00 @ Den Hartog: Omaha Creighton Prep 2, Lincoln North Star 0
Varsity games scheduled for Thursday, March 27:
4:30 @ Millard South: Omaha North VS Millard South Postponed 4:30 @ Omaha Bryan: Bellevue East VS Omaha Bryan Cancelled 4:30 @ Omaha Gross Catholic: Omaha Burke VS Omaha Gross Catholic
4:30 @ Omaha South: Omaha Central VS Omaha South Postponed 4:30 @ Papillion-LaVista South: Millard West VS Papillion-LaVista South Postponed to Sat. 4:00pm
4:30 @ Seward: Columbus VS Seward Postponed
4:30 @ Wahoo: Nebraska City VS Wahoo
5:00 @ Elkhorn: Gretna VS Elkhorn 5:00 @ Omaha Home for Boys: Bellevue West VS Benson
5:00 @ Papillion-LaVista: Ralston VS Papillion LaVista Cancelled
5:00 @ Omaha Northwest: Omaha Creighton Prep VS Omaha Northwest Postponed 5:00 @ Omaha Westside: Millard North VS Omaha Westside Postponed 5:00 @ Papillion-LaVista: Ralston VS Papillion-LaVista Cancelled 5:00 @ Grand Island: Lincoln East VS Grand Island 5:00 @ Lincoln High: Lincoln Pius X VS Lincoln High 6:30 @ Seward: Columbus VS Seward Postponed 6:30 @ Douglas County West: Blair VS Douglas County West Postponed
7:00 @ Grand Island: Lincoln East VS Grand Island
*Cancellations / postponements are per highschoolsports.net. Please confirm with your AD's office.
Game Notes and Comments:
1. Wednesday was a light day on the schedule with only six games played, but there were some dandies -- including Ralston's upset of Westside, Class B #2 Roncalli defeating Class B #1 Elkhorn, Millard North's smackdown of Skutt and capped off by the Prep vs. North Star duel last night.
2. Thursday's schedule is a full one with sixteen games on tap. Big ones: Class A #2 Millard West at Class A #3 Papio South, Class A #5 Millard North at Class A #4 Westside, Class A #6 Burke at Class B #3 Gross and Class B #4 Ralston at Class A #8 Papillion-LaVista. Blair vs. DC West will be a good one as teams jockey for position in Class B rankings. Bryan hosts Bellevue East with both teams coming off big wins in their last outing. Let's hope the weather cooperates.
3. What does the Prep vs. North Star game last night tell us? (a) Prep has tremendous pitching (we knew that, but we're still finding out just how good they are), (b) North Star is talented and scrappy (we knew that), (c) high school baseball is full of exciting match ups (we knew that), (d) Lanny Bolles has done a great job of building a baseball program at a new school (we're finding that out).
4. Prep at Grand Island at 1:00 on Saturday. Will it be future Husker teammates Ludemann vs. Kalkowski? That match up would be worth the price of gas to Grand Island. Let's see if we can get the coaches to tell us so that fans can make travel plans.
Outstanding Performances:
1. Creighton Prep's Josh Raburn threw six innings of no-hit ball against Class A #7
Creighton Prep senior left-handed pitcher Josh Raburn threw six hitless innings against #7 North Star, striking out 11.
Lincoln North Star, striking out 11, including six of the first seven hitters he faced. Teammate Joe Holtmeyer came on in the 7th to strike out the side to complete the combined no-hitter.
2. Central's Josh Samuelson threw a complete game two-hitter with 6 K's against Northwest. Catcher Ben Chonis laced a liner into right to score both Eagles' runs.
3. Blake Brisson had three hits and three RBI's for Class A #4 Millard North in the Mustang's romp over Skutt. Tyler Hoffman added 3 RBI's.
4. Class B #2 Roncalli's Alex Terry threw a complete game three-hitter to shut down Class B #1 Elkhorn. The sophomore lefty needed only 72 pitches to earn his 3rd win of the season. The Pride's Mike Nowak hit a three-run home run.
5. Lincoln Southeast's Jake Kuebler scattered four hits in earning his second win of the season as the Knights defeated Class #10 Lincoln Southwest 4-1.
6. Andy Smolinski, Derek Landis and Part Hartigan each came through with an RBI in Class B #4 Ralston's pivotal three-run inning to upset Class A #5 Westside, 3-2.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
4:30 @ Millard South: Millard South 13, Omaha North (5 inn)
5:00 @ Sherman Field: Lincoln Southeast 11, Lincoln North Star 5
5:00 @ Millard West: Millard West 13, Bellevue East 3 5:00 @ Papillion-LaVista South: Papillion-LaVista South 9, Norfolk 2 5:00 @ Papillion-LaVista: Millard North 8, Papillion-LaVista 5 5:30 @ Seward: Columbus 16, Seward 4
6:30 @ Elkhorn: Elkhorn 5, Wahoo 4
7:00 @ Omaha Burke: Omaha Burke 7, Bellevue West 2
Future HuskersKalkowski vs. Ludemann Creighton Prep at Grand Island
Update: Kash is sick and will not start today, but will play.
BaseballNebraska.com will provide live electronic scorekeeping from PLVS vs. Millard West game Saturday at 4:00. Go to the game if you can; if you can't, follow the action here. Watch for link.
Varsity games scheduled for Saturday, March 29:
10:00 @ Papillion-LaVista: Lincoln Southwest VS Papillion-LaVista (DH)
10:00 @ Sherman: Omaha North VS Lincoln High 10:00 @ Densmore 1: Omaha Bryan VS Lincoln Northeast
11:00 @ Den Hartog: Millard South VS Lincoln East
11:00 @ Omaha Gross Catholic: Omaha Central VS Omaha Gross Catholic
11:00 @ South Sioux City: Crete VS South Sioux City (DH) 12:00 @ Densmore 1: Ralston VS Lincoln Northeast 12:00 @ Norfolk: Omaha Roncalli Catholic VS Norfolk (DH) 12:00 @ Omaha Skutt Catholic: Columbus VS Omaha Skutt Catholic
12:00 @ Papillion (Fricke): Lincoln Southwest VS Papillion-LaVista (DH)
12:00 @ Seward: Fremont Bergan VS Seward (DH)
1:00 @ Grand Island: Omaha Creighton Prep VS Grand Island (DH) 1:00 @ : Omaha Bryan VS Lincoln High
1:00 @ Millard West: Millard North VS Millard West
2:00 @ Norfolk: Omaha Roncalli Catholic VS Norfolk (DH) 2:00 @ Omaha South: Omaha Burke VS Omaha South
1:30 @ South Sioux City: Crete VS South Sioux City (DH)2:00 @ Seward: Fremont Bergan VS Seward (DH)
4:00 @ Papillion-LaVista South: Millard West VS Papillion-LaVista South
3:00 @ Grand Island: Omaha Creighton Prep VS Grand Island (DH)
1. We're hearing unofficial reports of 19 strikeout performance by sophomore lefty Logan Ehlers of Nebraska City in a one-hit win over Wahoo on Thursday. Nothing official yet, but, if confirmed, that's a very, very impressive outing by the young man.
2. Great Class B battle yesterday at Roncalli as #2 Roncalli (6-1) avenged an Opening Day loss to Skutt (1-5) by reversing the score to win 3-2 and give the Pride their fifth one-run victory. Mike Patterson has a nice write-up of the game in today's World Herald. The Roncalli website, www.pridebaseball.org (my nominee for best high school baseball website in the state), notes that Skutt's opponents have a combined record of 38-9, which has a lot to do with Skutt's early season record. Playing top teams will pay off for the Skyhawks down the stretch.
3. Lincoln North Star (5-2) suffered its second loss of the week, 11-5, to crosstown rival Southeast. The Navigators fell 2-0 to #1 Prep Wednesday. Meanwhile, the 5-3 Knights, who dropped three of their first four games, have bounced back to win four straight. Both teams are idle today.
4. Today's schedule features a pair of top-notch early season match-ups: Kash Kalkowski vs. Nick Ludemann in Game 1 of the Prep-Grand Island double-header at 1:00 and Class A #2 Millard West (11-0) at #3 Papillion LaVista South (8-0) at 4:00. Ludemann has not pitched yet this season and will be on a limited pitch count, according to Prep Head Coach Pat Mooney. Nevertheless, it will be fun to see the two future Huskers face off for a few innings at least. (Update: According to GI Head Coach Rick Kissack, Kash Kalkowski is sick today and will not start.) The Millard West - Papio South duel is rescheduled from Thursday afternoon. Both teams won handily last night. The Wildcats will face a very tough challenge immediately prior to the Big Game by hosting Class #5 (6-2) Millard North at 1:00 before heading to South. The back-to-back games against top competition should help prepare the Wildcats for their Invitational next weekend and the Metro Conference Tournament in two weeks.
5. Speaking of Millard North, the much-anticipated game against Westside Thursday evening fell victim to bad weather, giving the Mustangs a bit of a break in a week of games against top teams. The Mustangs came from behind to claim an 8-5 win over Papio at Fricke last night by scoring four runs in the top of the 7th.
5. Newcomer Norris is 2-2 after the split with Marysville. Note to new fans: games against teams from states bordering Nebraska DO count for Wild Card Point purposes. By the same rule, Skutt's games in the Las Vegas tournament earlier in the season do not count.
6. Class A #6 Burke (6-1) is the current leader in Class A Wild Card Points Standings. As more games are played, the WCP's become an increasingly more accurate measure of strength of schedule. Congratulations to the Dawgs for overcoming any distractions caused by the early season coaching change and getting off to a strong start. Little known fact: standout lefty pitcher Ben Heairet is a very good hitter.
Outstanding Performances:
1. Millard North's Ben Homer stroked a clutch bases-loaded double with two outs in the top of the 7th to drive in the go ahead runs for the Mustangs, who trailed 5-4 going into the final frame against Papio. Homer also earned the win, his second of the season.
Senior left-hander Joe Bircher of Roncalli struck out 11 against Skutt to earn his second win of the season. Photo courtesy of www.pridebaseball.org
2. Eric Dreesen of Elkhorn was 2 for 2 with two runs scored to help the Antlers (6-3) grab a one-run win over Wahoo.
3. Nick Price of Norris had three hits in game one of the Marysville double-header and struck out ten to earn the win in game two. Teammate Nate Hoover had two hits and three RBI's in the second game.
4. Roncalli's Joe Bircher struck out 11 Skutt hitters to earn his second win of the season.
5. Junior slugger Colton Thomas of Millard South drove in three runs on two hits in the Patriots' five inning win over North.
6. Burke's Zach Weinandt tossed a 6 hitter, striking out 5 and allowing no earned runs against Bellevue West. Ben Heairet, Eric Furhmiester and Tyler Paulsen combined for 6 hits and 5 RBI's for the 6-1 Bulldogs.
7. Adam Dunaway of Papillion LaVista South earned his 3rd victory, giving up only 3 hits over 5 innings against Norfolk. Anthony Dunn, Brian Donohoe, and Michael Albert combined for 7 hits.
8. Danny Marcuzzo of Millard West, best known as a hurler for the Wildcats, had four hits, including a home run, in the win against Bellevue East.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
4:30 Omaha Central @ Millard North 4:30 Omaha Benson @ Omaha Bryan 4:30 Ralston @ Omaha Gross Catholic 4:30 Seward @ Nebraska City 4:30 South Sioux City @ Omaha Roncalli Catholic
4:30 Omaha Northwest VS @ Omaha Skutt Catholic 4:30 Bellevue West @ Bellevue East 4:30 Wahoo @ Crete
5:00 Omaha Burke @ Millard West 5:00 Omaha Creighton Prep @ Omaha North 5:00 Omaha South @ Omaha Westside
5:00 Lincoln Southwest @ Lincoln High (Sherman) 5:00 Lincoln Pius X @ Lincoln East (Den Hartog)
6:30 Elkhorn @ Norris 6:30 Douglas County West @ Beatrice
Game Notes and Comments:
1. Let's get the apologies and corrections out of the way. Yesterday, we incorrectly reported that Roncalli's 3-2 win over Skutt avenged an opening day loss to the Skyhawks by the same score. Where did that come from? Who knows; chalk it up to lack of sleep. Roncalli's only loss of the season was to Millard North.
2. Apologies to fans following the action from Papio South on the electronic scorekeeping link. We had a couple of periods when the portion of the program that uploads the boxscore and summary was not functioning. We're still learning and working out the kinks, but it's worth the effort.
3. The light crowd at Papio South yesterday saw a great pitching performance by Arkansas recruit Kendall Wehrle. The 9-0 Titans are for real. It should be noted that the Wildcat's Sean Hoover sat out the game with a sore hamstring, and props to Millard West coach Frank Ryan for scheduling back-to-back games against #5 Millard North and #3 Papio South. That move will pay off come tournament time.
4. In the Game 1 blowout loss to top-ranked Prep (8-0), the Islanders (4-7) led Prep 8-7 after four innings before giving up nine runs each in the fifth and sixth. The Islanders pitching staff was shorthanded as ace Kash Kalkowski was held out after missing two days of school due to illness, 6'7" lefty Eric Schweiger is a few days away from returning after labrum surgery last summer and Pete Kropp is recovering from a broken foot. Prep had thirty one hits in the two games, but, uncharacteristically, did give up twelve hits and eleven runs in the first game, eight of those runs coming while the game was still in contention.
5. After losing six of their first eight games, Omaha Bryan finished the week with three straight wins to improve to 5-6.
6. Congratulations to Blair (2-4) for winning its own Invitational Tournament.
7. Ralston (5-0) remains the only undefeated team in Class B and picked up a win yesterday against Class A Lincoln Northeast.
8. Monday's schedule includes another Top Ten opponent for Millard West as the Wildcats host #6 Burke (7-1). A pair of backyard brawls are also on tap for Monday: Bellevue West at Bellevue East and Papillion-LaVista at Papillion-LaVista South.
9. April means tournaments, beginning with the Millard West Invitational this weekend. If your team is hosting a tournament, please have your Team Reporter add your tournament information to the Tournaments link, or email your schedule and bracket to admin@metropreps.com.
10. Watch for our updated Top Ten rankings later today.
Outstanding Performances:
Conor Kingsbury
Omaha Burke
Mitch Reinig
Gretna
Josh Milz
Papillion-LaVista South
Alex Miller
Millard West
1. Kendall Wehrle of Papillion-LaVista South allowed only four hits in a complete game win against Class A #2 Millard West, arguably the most explosive offense in the state. Wehrle also stroked a solo homer to extend South's lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth.
2. Josh Milz of Papillion-LaVista South drove in two runs with a triple in South's three-run second inning and two more with home run in the four-run fourth to finish the day 2 for 3 with four RBI's and a run scored.
Papillion-LaVista South's Kendall Wehrle threw a complete game four-hitter against powerful Millard West and hit a solo home run in the Titan's 8-1 win on Saturday.
3. Millard West's Alex Miller (4 RBI's) and Steve Jensen (3 RBI's) accounted for seven runs in the Wildcat's 14-3 win over Class A #5Millard North. Jensen had two doubles, and teammates Brett Bass, Brandon Bass, Tyler Niederklein, Kyle Fredrickson and Bryce Johnston each doubled in the game. Miller homered, giving the Wildcats 8 extra base hits out of a total of 14 hits in the game.
4. Blair's C.J. Brewer struck out ten in the Bear's championship game against Beatrice, and sophomore Joey Gentzler produced the game-winning hit in the bottom of the seventh to give Blair the 1-0 win. In Game 1 of the tournament, sophomore Ryan Garder earned the win over Gretna, allowing only one unearned run in four innings of relief.
5. Burke's Conor Kingsbury was 3 for 5 with two triples, a double and five RBI's in the Bulldog's win over South. Teammate Zach Weinandt drove in four runs with a pair of doubles. Dawgs' senior Andrew Shalgren earned his first win of the season, allowing one hit over five innings while striking out seven.
6. Michael Servais of Skutt earned his first varsity win, striking out nine in the Skyhawk's win over Columbus. Yes, his dad is Creighton Coach Ed.
7. Mitch Reinig of Gretna struck out nine in a one-hitter against Wahoo.
8. Millard South's Pat Burkhart (3) and Ryan Rohmiller (2) combined for five hits to lead the Patriots over Lincoln East. Teammate Colton Thomas homered (again).
9. Mike Nowak, Danny Kulus, and Alex Terry of Roncalli each had three hits in the first game of a doubleheader against Norfolk to help Bob Sullivan earn his first win of the season in a complete game performance. In the second game, Nowak and Kulus both homered.
10. Lincoln High's Pete Ehing struck out six in a complete game outing, and teammate Eric McVicker went 3 for 4 with three runs scored and two RBIs to lead the Links over Omaha North.
11. Fremont Bergan's Josh Ostrum struck out ten Seward hitters in a complete game perfromance in the first game of a doubleheader. In the second game, Seward’s Tanner Smith stroked a game-winning double in the bottom of the eighth for the Bluejays.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
4:30 Omaha Central @ Millard North 4:30 Omaha Benson @ Omaha Bryan 4:30 South Sioux City @ Omaha Roncalli Catholic (rescheduled to 4:30 Wed, April 2)
4:30 Omaha Northwest VS @ Omaha Skutt Catholic 4:30 Bellevue West @ Bellevue East
(rescheduled to 1:00 Sat. April 12) 5:00 Omaha Burke @ Millard West 5:00 Omaha Creighton Prep @ Omaha North
5:00 Lincoln Southwest @ Lincoln High (Sherman)
5:00 Lincoln Pius X @ Lincoln East (Den Hartog)
6:30 Elkhorn @ Norris
(Cancellation information is from www.highschoolsports.net. Be sure to confirm status of game with your coach or athletic director's office. We will continue to update as information is received.)
Game Notes and Comments:
1. Let's get the apologies and corrections out of the way. Yesterday, we incorrectly reported that Roncalli's 3-2 win over Skutt avenged an opening day loss to the Skyhawks by the same score. Where did that come from? Who knows; chalk it up to lack of sleep. Roncalli's only loss of the season was to Millard North.
2. Apologies to fans following the action from Papio South on the electronic scorekeeping link. We had a couple of periods when the portion of the program that uploads the boxscore and summary was not functioning. We're still learning and working out the kinks, but it's worth the effort.
3. The light crowd at Papio South yesterday saw a great pitching performance by Arkansas recruit Kendall Wehrle. The 9-0 Titans are for real. It should be noted that the Wildcat's Sean Hoover sat out the game with a sore hamstring, and props to Millard West coach Frank Ryan for scheduling back-to-back games against #5 Millard North and #3 Papio South. That move will pay off come tournament time.
4. In the Game 1 blowout loss to top-ranked Prep (8-0), the Islanders (4-7) led Prep 8-7 after four innings before giving up nine runs each in the fifth and sixth. The Islanders pitching staff was shorthanded as ace Kash Kalkowski was held out after missing two days of school due to illness, 6'7" lefty Eric Schweiger is a few days away from returning after labrum surgery last summer and Pete Kropp is recovering from a broken foot. Prep had thirty one hits in the two games, but, uncharacteristically, did give up twelve hits and eleven runs in the first game, eight of those runs coming while the game was still in contention.
5. After losing six of their first eight games, Omaha Bryan finished the week with three straight wins to improve to 5-6.
6. Congratulations to Blair (2-4) for winning its own Invitational Tournament.
7. Ralston (5-0) remains the only undefeated team in Class B and picked up a win yesterday against Class A Lincoln Northeast.
8. Monday's schedule includes another Top Ten opponent for Millard West as the Wildcats host #6 Burke (7-1). A pair of backyard brawls are also on tap for Monday: Bellevue West at Bellevue East and Papillion-LaVista at Papillion-LaVista South.
9. April means tournaments, beginning with the Millard West Invitational this weekend. If your team is hosting a tournament, please have your Team Reporter add your tournament information to the Tournaments link, or email your schedule and bracket to admin@metropreps.com.
10. See our updated Top Ten Rankings below. OWH Rankings are also out today.
Outstanding Performances:
Conor Kingsbury
Omaha Burke
Mitch Reinig
Gretna
Josh Milz
Papillion-LaVista South
Alex Miller
Millard West
1. Kendall Wehrle of Papillion-LaVista South allowed only four hits in a complete game win against Class A #2 Millard West, arguably the most explosive offense in the state. Wehrle also stroked a solo homer to extend South's lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth.
2. Josh Milz of Papillion-LaVista South drove in two runs with a triple in South's three-run second inning and two more with home run in the four-run fourth to finish the day 2 for 3 with four RBI's and a run scored.
Papillion-LaVista South's Kendall Wehrle threw a complete game four-hitter against powerful Millard West and hit a solo home run in the Titan's 8-1 win on Saturday.
3. Millard West's Alex Miller (4 RBI's) and Steve Jensen (3 RBI's) accounted for seven runs in the Wildcat's 14-3 win over Class A #5Millard North. Jensen had two doubles, and teammates Brett Bass, Brandon Bass, Tyler Niederklein, Kyle Fredrickson and Bryce Johnston each doubled in the game. Miller homered, giving the Wildcats 8 extra base hits out of a total of 14 hits in the game.
4. Blair's C.J. Brewer struck out ten in the Bear's championship game against Beatrice, and sophomore Joey Gentzler produced the game-winning hit in the bottom of the seventh to give Blair the 1-0 win. In Game 1 of the tournament, sophomore Ryan Garder earned the win over Gretna, allowing only one unearned run in four innings of relief.
5. Burke's Conor Kingsbury was 3 for 5 with two triples, a double and five RBI's in the Bulldog's win over South. Teammate Zach Weinandt drove in four runs with a pair of doubles. Dawgs' senior Andrew Shalgren earned his first win of the season, allowing one hit over five innings while striking out seven.
6. Michael Servais of Skutt earned his first varsity win, striking out nine in the Skyhawk's win over Columbus. Yes, his dad is Creighton Coach Ed.
7. Mitch Reinig of Gretna struck out nine in a one-hitter against Wahoo.
8. Millard South's Pat Burkhart (3) and Ryan Rohmiller (2) combined for five hits to lead the Patriots over Lincoln East. Teammate Colton Thomas homered (again).
9. Mike Nowak, Danny Kulus, and Alex Terry of Roncalli each had three hits in the first game of a doubleheader against Norfolk to help Bob Sullivan earn his first win of the season in a complete game performance. In the second game, Nowak and Kulus both homered.
10. Lincoln High's Pete Ehing struck out six in a complete game outing, and teammate Eric McVicker went 3 for 4 with three runs scored and two RBIs to lead the Links over Omaha North.
11. Fremont Bergan's Josh Ostrum struck out ten Seward hitters in a complete game perfromance in the first game of a doubleheader. In the second game, Seward’s Tanner Smith stroked a game-winning double in the bottom of the eighth for the Bluejays.
12. Mike Korsakas of Lincoln Southwest threw a complete game five-hitter in game one of the Silver Hawks' double-header sweep of Papillion LaVista, and went 8 for 9 on the day with five RBI's and three runs scored.
13. Zach Smith of Lincoln East homered and tripled in the Spartans' loss to Millard South, driving in three runs on three hits.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
Daily Calendar for April 1, 2008
Varsity games played Monday, March 31:
Omaha Westside 20, Omaha South 0
Rainouts:
4:30 Wahoo @ Crete
4:30 Ralston @ Omaha Gross Catholic
4:30 Papillion-LaVista @ Papillion-LaVista South
4:30 Seward @ Nebraska City (per Coach Bales)
4:30 Omaha Central @ Millard North 4:30 Omaha Benson @ Omaha Bryan 4:30 South Sioux City @ Omaha Roncalli Catholic (rescheduled to 4:30 Wed, April 2)
4:30 Omaha Northwest VS @ Omaha Skutt Catholic 4:30 Bellevue West @ Bellevue East
(rescheduled to 1:00 Sat. April 12) 5:00 Omaha Burke @ Millard West 5:00 Omaha Creighton Prep @ Omaha North
5:00 Fremont Bergan @ Lincoln East (Densmore 1) 5:00 Lincoln Northeast @ Lincoln Pius X (playing game 1 of DH only) (Den Hartog) 5:00 Lincoln North Star @ Lincoln Southwest (Sherman)
5:00 Millard West @ Ralston
6:30 Marysville, KS @Beatrice (DH) 6:30 Douglas County West @ Columbus (DH)
Cancellations / Postponements: (unofficial)
4:30 Omaha Roncalli Catholic @ Wahoo
5:00 Omaha Creighton Prep @ Omaha North (Fontenelle)
5:00 Grand Island @ Norfolk (DH)
5:00 Omaha Skutt Catholic @ Nebraska City (postponed to 4:00 April 16)
6:30 Seward @ Blair (postponed to April 28)
7:00 Grand Island@ Norfolk (DH)
7:00 Lincoln Northeast @Lincoln Pius X (will play 5:00 game only)
Game Notes and Comments:
1. Rain wiped out nearly all of Monday's schedule. Westside was able to host South on the Warriors' all-weather field.
3. Nebraska City Head Coach Tom Bales has confirmed that sophomore lefty Logan Ehlers struck out 19 against Wahoo Thursday in a 6-1 win. Wahoo Coach Mike Bomar noted that Ehlers "just dominated in extremely cold weather. It was a great performance." In a six inning outing against Class B #2 Roncalli earlier in the season, Ehlers struck out eleven, giving the young hurler 30 strikeouts in 13 innings of work so far this season. See a nice article about Logan by Ryly Jane Hambleton in today's Journal-Star.
4. The Millard West Invitational runs this Thursday through Saturday, featuring an eight-team field comprised of five Top Ten teams from Class A and Class B #3 Elkhorn. See the Tournaments link on the Main Menu for the schedule and brackets. Teams were seeded based on Wild Card Points as of last Wednesday, March 26.
5. Lincoln North Star will host the four-team Gator Baseball Tournament on Saturday at Sherman Field in Lincoln. The field includes Class A #10 Lincoln Southwest, the # 9 Gators, Lincoln High and Bellevue East. See the Tournaments link for the schedule.
Outstanding Performances:
1. Justin Hynek had 4 hits, including 3 doubles, and 6 RBIs for Westside in the win over South. John Williams added a grand slam, and ConnorFreeburg and Tim Sockrider drove in 3 runs each.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
Omaha Northwest @ Millard South Cancellations / Postponements:
4:30 Omaha Roncalli Catholic @ Wahoo
5:00 Omaha Creighton Prep @ Omaha North (Fontenelle)
5:00 Grand Island @ Norfolk (DH)
5:00 Omaha Skutt Catholic @ Nebraska City (postponed to 4:00 April 16)
6:30 Seward @ Blair (postponed to April 28)
7:00 Grand Island@ Norfolk (DH)
7:00 Lincoln Northeast @Lincoln Pius X (will play 5:00 game only)
Millard West @ Ralston PPD
Varsity games scheduled for Wednesday, April 2:
4:30 Omaha North @ Bellevue East
4:30 South Sioux City @ Omaha Roncalli Catholic
4:30 Omaha Central @ Omaha Gross Catholic
4:30 Papillion-Lavista @ Papillion-LaVista South
(location changed to Fricke Field in Papillion)
5:00 Elkhorn @ Lincoln Southeast (Den Hartog) 5:00 Omaha Bryan @ Millard North 5:00 Millard South @ Millard West 5:00 Omaha Creighton Prep @ Omaha Benson (Omaha Home for Boys)
5:00 Ralston @ Omaha Northwest 5:00 Lincoln High @ Omaha South (Brown Park)
7:00 Bellevue West @ Omaha Gross Catholic (confirmed)
Attention Coaches and Team Reporters:
If your school is hosting an invitational tournament in April, please forward a copy of your bracket and other tournament information to admin@metropreps.com as soon as it is available.
Game Notes and Comments:
1. Cold temperature conditions knocked out quite a few games scheduled for Tuesday, following on the heels of a near-complete washout of Monday's schedule. Along with today's light schedule, it makes for a slow start to the week. Warmer weather is just around the corner (or so they say).
2. Class A #6 Westside (8-2) came back with two runs in the bottom of seventh to nip contender Bellevue East (4-5), 7-6.
3. Class A #9 North Star (6-2) nipped #10 Southwest 1-0 (5-5) despite being held to three hits. Jacob Hiatt earns the win with a five-hitter.
4. In a battle of up-and-comers, Lincoln East (5-4) edged Fremont Bergan (5-4) by a score of 4-3. Bergan rallied in the top of the seventh from three back to score two runs, but East held on for the win. Tyson Clark earns the win for the Spartans. Both teams, along with Bellevue East (4-5), Papillion-LaVista (4-5), Northwest (3-2), Bryan (6-6) and Grand Island (4-7), occupy the territory just south of the Top Ten and are looking to break through.
5. Northeast broke open a 2-2 tie with 7 runs in the top of the 6th to defeat Pius 9-5. Both teams are 3-6, although Pius is knocking at the Top 5 door in Class B after having played eight of their nine games against Class A opponents.
6. Papillion-LaVista (5-4) and Class A #2 Papillion-LaVista South (9-0) play a make-up today at South of Monday night's rained out Battle of Papillion.
7. Class B #5 Gross (3-4) and Central (5-5) go at it again this afternoon at Gross. Gross won 8-7 on Saturday. At 7:00 Gross will host Bellevue West.
8. With four Wild Card slots available in the Class B state tournament, and a two-point bonus for playing a Class A team (win or lose), look for Class B teams to beef up their WCP averages by adding beatable Class A opponents to their schedule whenever possible. A win over a 4th Division Class A opponent is worth 43 points to a Class B team. Such a win today would raise the WCP of every team in Class B except for the top two -- not as much as beating a good Class B opponent, but probably less risky too. Heck, even a loss to 1st Division Class A team would raise the average of a majority (8 of 14) Class B teams.
If Class A Team plays a Class A Team, a Class B Team plays a Class B Team or a Class A Team plays a Class B Team:
Victory Over:
50 pts
47 pts
44 pts
41 pts
Loss to:
39 pts
36 pts
33 pts
30 pts
If Class BTeam plays a Class A Team, a two point bonus is awarded:
Victory Over:
52 pts
49 pts
46 pts
43 pts
Loss to:
41 pts
38 pts
35 pts
32 pts
Outstanding Performances:
1. Westside's Connor Freeburg had 3 hits and Kyle Hartman added 2 hits and 2 RBIs in the win over Bellevue East. TimSockrider had 2 hits, scored 2 runs, and picked up the win on the mound for the Warriors.
Kurt Farmer, Columbus, Jr.
2 doubles, 2 HR's in DH
2. Lincoln East teammates Graham Thurber (3), Taylor Gillette (2) and Pete Meginnis (2) combined for seven hits in the Spartans' win over Fremont Bergan.
3. Lincoln Northeast’s Zach Reinke drove in two runs with a bases loaded single in the top of the sixth to ignite a seven-run rally in the win over Pius. Reinke finished with three hits in the game. Tyler Fehringer threw six innings for the Rockets, giving up four hits and striking out eight.
4. In the double-header sweep of Douglas County West, Columbus junior shortstop Kurt Farmer went a combined 4 for 6 with two doubles and two homeruns.
5. Bryan's Aaron Bell struck out 10 in a complete game shutout of Class B newcomer Norris, allowing only 2 hits.
Want to see the outstanding performers on your team recognized? Use the "Report Your Scores" form. See "On Line Forms" on Main Menu.
Daily Calendar for April 5, 2008
Varsity games played Friday, April 4:
Beatrice 6, Fremont Bergan 2 Omaha Creighton Prep 5, Omaha Central 0
Lincoln Pius X 14, Nebraska City 4
Lincoln North Star 8, Lincoln Northeast 0
Seward @ South Sioux City [awaiting score]
Millard West Invitational Tournament
At Westside:
Gm 1: Lincoln Southeast 6, Westside 2
Gm 2: Millard North 10, Lincoln East 0 (5 innings)
Gm 3: Millard West 7, Millard South 1
Gm 4: Elkhorn 10, Omaha Bryan 4
Prep's Derek Nelson slides into third ahead of the tag by Central's Derek Noel.
Prep pitcher Josh Raburn (2nd from right) relaxes with mates in the dugout. Raburn held Central to two hits in six innings of work before Joe Holtmeyer came on in the seventh to preserve the shutout.
Yes, Prep has girls. At least in the stands.
Varsity games scheduled for Saturday, April 5:
11:00 Bellevue West @ Omaha Roncalli 11:00 Norris @ Blair 11:00 Omaha Central @ Papillion-LaVista (DH) 11:00 Omaha South @ Seward (DH)
12:00 Nebraska City Omaha North 1:00 Omaha South @ Seward (DH) 1:00 Omaha Central @ Papillion-LaVista (DH) 1:30 South Sioux City @ Ralston 3:15 Norfolk @ Omaha Benson (Omaha Home for Boys)
Columbus / Northwest / Gross Triangular
at Pawnee Park, Columbus
1:30 Columbus vs. Omaha Northwest
3:30 Omaha Northwest vs. Gross
5:30 Columbus vs. Gross
Fremont Bergan / Wahoo / Creighton Prep Triangular
at Moller Field, Fremont
11:00 Creighton Prep vs. Fremont Bergan
1:30 Creighton Prep vs. Wahoo
3:00 Fremont Bergan vs. Wahoo
Gator Baseball Tournament
at Sherman Field, Lincoln
11:00 Game 1: Lincoln North Star vs. Bellevue East 1:00 Game 2: Lincoln High vs. Lincoln Southwest 3:00 Consolation (Loser Gm 1 vs. Loser Gm 2) 5:00 Championship (Winner Gm 1 vs. Winner Gm 2)
Papillion-LaVista South Tournament
at Papillion-LaVista South High School
10:00 Game 1: Papillion-LaVista South vs. Lincoln Northeast
12:00 Game 2: Grand Island vs. Beatrice
2:00 Consolation (Loser Gm 1 vs. Loser Gm 2)
4:00 Championship (Winner Gm 1 vs. Winner Gm 2)
Millard West Invitational Tournament
at Millard West (pairing Friday winners)
10:30 Game 7: Millard North vs. Lincoln Southeast
1:00 Game 8: Millard West vs. Elkhorn
3:30 Consolation: (Loser Gm 7 vs. Loser Gm 8)
6:00 Championship: (Winner Gm 7 vs. Winner Gm 8)
at Westside (pairing Friday losers)
10:30 Game 6: Omaha Bryan vs. Millard South
1:00 Game 5: Lincoln East vs. Westside
3:30 7th Place (Loser Game 5 vs. Loser Game 6)
6:00 5th Place (Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6)
Coming Next Week
April 10-12:
Metro Athletic Conference Tournament
Heartland Athletic Conference Tournament
Watch for schedules and brackets soon.
Notes and Comments:
1. Looks like today will be our day of good weather before it turns wet and cool again. There is plenty of high school baseball action across the state today. Get out and enjoy the sunshine!
2. Today's four-team tournament at Papillion-LaVista South presents a possible pairing of highly regarded right-handers, Nebraska recruit Kash Kalkowski of Grand Island vs. Arkansas recruit Kendall Wehrle of PLVS.
3. Due to wet field conditions at Millard West Friday's games were all played at Westside, thus, only four of the eight scheduled games were played. Both fields will be in action today with four games at each.
3. Class A #8 Southeast's 6-2 win over #6 Westside in the Millard West Tournament was the Knight's sixth straight win since losing at Burke two weeks ago. The 7-3 Knights started the season by losing three of their first four.
4. In a battle of lefties, Pius senior Aaron Molinaro (3-0) bested Nebraska City's standout sophomore Logan Ehlers (1-2) as the Thunderbolts (4-6) exploited nine Pioneer errors to win 14-4 in five innings.
Outstanding Performances:
Zane Hinkel
Creighton Prep
1. Prep's Zane Hinkel was 3 for 4 in the win over Central, raising his season batting average to .719. The senior shortstop and pitcher is 11 for 13 in his last four games and has led off each with a hit. On the season Hinkel has 23 hits, has scored 19 runs and has driven in 14 runs in Class A #1 Prep's 10 games -- all wins.
2. Southeast's Jake Kuebler allowed only 4 hits in the win over Westside and helped himself out with two hits at the plate.
3. Lincoln North Star's Nate Wilder was 3 for 3 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Ricky Ideus struck out seven for the Gators in a five-hit shutout over Northeast. The Navigators supported Ideus with three double plays in the game.
4. Brett Koehn of Millard North had 2 hits and 2 RBI's in the win over Lincoln East as Ryan Scheetz tossed a two-hitter for the Mustangs. Ben Homer also drove in two runs.
Daily Calendar for April 6, 2008 (updated 6:30pm)
Varsity games played Saturday, April 5:
Omaha Roncalli 8, Bellevue West 0 Blair 4, Norris 1
Omaha Central 2, Papillion-LaVista 1
Papillion-LaVista 7, Omaha Central 1
Seward 12, Omaha South 3
Seward 7, Omaha South 6
Omaha Skutt 7, Gretna 0
Nebraska City 5, Omaha North 3
South Sioux City 6, Ralston 4 Norfolk 4, Omaha Benson 2
Columbus / Northwest / Gross Triangular
at Pawnee Park, Columbus
Columbus 11, Omaha Northwest 1
Gross 11, Columbus 5
Omaha Northwest vs. Gross [game not played]
Fremont Bergan / Wahoo / Creighton Prep Triangular
at Moller Field, Fremont
Creighton Prep 3, Fremont Bergan 1
Creighton Prep 12, Wahoo 1 (5 inn.)
Fremont Bergan 11, Wahoo 6
Gator Baseball Tournament
at Sherman Field, Lincoln
Game 1: Bellevue East 3, Lincoln North Star 1 Game 2: Lincoln Southwest 12, Lincoln High 2 (5 inn.) Consolation: Lincoln North Star 4, Lincoln High 3 (9 inn.)
Championship: Bellevue East 5, Lincoln Southwest 2
Papillion-LaVista South Tournament
at Papillion-LaVista South High School
Game 1: Papillion-LaVista South 12, Lincoln Northeast 6
Game 2: Grand Island 15, Beatrice 5 (6 inn.)
Consolation: Lincoln Northeast 8, Beatrice 6
Championship: Grand Island 6, Papillion-LaVista South 5
Millard West Invitational Tournament
at Millard West
Game 7: Millard North 9, Lincoln Southeast 8
Game 8: Millard West 16, Elkhorn 5
Consolation: Elkhorn 12, Lincoln Southeast 6
Championship: Millard North 6, Millard West 6
at Westside
Game 6: Millard South 11, Omaha Bryan 7
Game 5: Lincoln East 5, Westside 1
7th Place: Bryan 1, Westside 0
5th Place: Millard South 7, Lincoln East 6
The Grand Island athletic training staff was all smiles about the 6-5 win.
Varsity games scheduled for Monday, April 7:
1:00 Omaha Bryan @ Omaha South
4:30 Ralston @ Gretna
4:30 Omaha Skutt Catholic @ Wahoo 4:30 Bellevue West @ Nebraska City 4:30 Bellevue East VS Omaha Central 5:00 Lincoln North Star @ Lincoln East 5:00 Omaha Gross Catholic @ Millard North 5:00 Omaha Benson @ Douglas County West 5:00 Omaha North @ Omaha Burke 5:00 Millard West @ Omaha Creighton Prep 5:00 Papillion-LaVista South @ Omaha Northwest 5:00 Millard South @ Papillion-LaVista 6:30 Beatrice @ Elkhorn
See additional information on Main Menu > Tournaments
Kendall Wehrle brings Papio South back from a 4-1 deficit with a three run home run against Grand Island. The Islanders won 6-5.
GI's Kash Kalkowski is called out on a close play at third base.
Papio South's second basebman Anthony Dunn turns a double play.
Notes and Comments:
1. Congratulations to the following weekend tournament winners:
Millard West Invitational: Millard North (10-3)
Papillion-LaVista South Tournament : Grand Island (6-7)
Gator Baseball Tournament: Bellevue East (7-5)
2. Class A #2 Papillion-LaVista South and #3 Millard West both went down to defeat in 6-5 games in the championships of their respective tournaments. West committed eight errors in its loss to Millard North.
3. Class A #6 Westside (8-5) was winless in the Millard West tournament, scoring a total of three runs in losses to Lincoln Southeast, Lincoln East and Omaha Bryan. All three losses were on the Warriors' home field.
4. While other Top 10 teams were beating up on each other in weekend tournaments, undefeated Class A #1 Prep improved its record to 12-0 with wins over Fremont Bergan (6-6) and Class B Wahoo (1-9) in a triangular at Fremont. The Junior Bluejays play Class A #3 Millard West tomorrow evening (Monday) in a marquee matchup beginning at 5:00 at Millard West (not a doubleheader as previously reported).
5. Class B # 3 Elkhorn (7-4), the only Class B team in the Millard West Invitational, made some noise with wins over Class A #8 Lincoln Southeast and Class A Bryan en route to a third place finish.
6. The Papillion-LaVista South Tournament championship game featured a match-up of the Titan's Kendall Wehrle and the Islanders' Kash Kalkowski. Although Wehrle was not as sharp as in last Saturday's win over Millard West, his three run homer to tie in the bottom of the fifth chased the Husker recruit and gave the Titan's momentum going into the final frames. The Islanders' 6'8" lefty reliever Eric Schweiger brought some serious sidearm gas to snuff the surge, and an infield error in the top of the sixth brought home the go ahead runs for GI. The Titans came back with a run in the bottom of the seventh before Schweiger worked out of a bases-loaded, no outs situation with a strike out and two ground balls to earn the win in his first outing since shoulder surgery last June. The final innings were played in fading twilight at the unlit ballpark.
7. First-year program South Sioux pulled off a big win Saturday by upsetting previously undefeated and Class B #1 Ralston, 6-4. Sophomore Alex Grogh scattered nine hits and struck out two in the Cardinal's win. Coach Clint Brown observed that no win is bigger than a new program's first ever win (which for the Cardinals was a 2-1 over fellow newcomer Crete on March 29), "but this was a real big win for our kids."
Outstanding Performances:
1. Outstanding defensive performances don't get much ink, but exceptional fielding at the Central - Papio doubleheader on Saturday deserves special mention. In game 1, Papio's centerfielder Josh Tietsort made a running / diving / laying out horizontally catch of a liner off the bat of Brad Benes to rob an extra base hit. In the same game, Central second baseman Doug Moore dove to his left to snare a hot ground ball then made a quick pivot to start an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play. But the big leather was flashed by left fielder / defensive lineman / wrestler Anthony Fielding who tracked a deep ball by Brian Pruch back to the fence then reached over the fence to end the game by robbing a game-tying homerun from Pruch who had a solo shot earlier in the game. In the second game, the Eagles' Drew Dickey put on a clinic in centerfield by running down and making sliding catches on three balls hit into the gap on a gusty day.
2. In game one of the Papio - Central doubleheader, Central's Connor Mayfield earned his second win of the season with a seven-inning performance, holding the Monarch's to a single run on seven hits with four strikeouts in the 2-1 victory for the Eagles (6-8). Reliever Austin Lapsely earned the save in the eighth. Papio's Brian Pruch was 3 for 4 with a double and a home run and nearly hit a second ball out. In game two the Monarch's Jeff Weander and Derek Leif and the Eagle's Derek Noel and Josh Samuelson each had two hits, as Papio (6-6) snapped a six game losing streak with a 7-1 win.
3. In Bellevue East's 3-1 win over Class A#10 Lincoln NorthStar in the Gator Baseball Tournament, the Chieftain's Cory Buckley earned his second win by striking out seven and giving up only four hits, and Ryan Owens had three hits for the Chieftains. In the Championship game win over Southwest, Danny Pierce got his third win and Ryan Keele added three hits for the Chieftains.
4. Blair' Cameron Derry was 2 for 3 with 2 RBI's and a double and CJ Brewer allowed ony 1 run on 3 hits with 7K's in the Bear's 4-1 win over Norris. David Koziol earned the save.
5. Michael Novicki of Columbus held Omaha Northwest to a single run on three hits in the 11-1 win, striking out eight in the six inning win. Novicki also helped himself by going 3 for 4 at the plate with 3 RBI's.
6. Millard North's Luke Abkes hit two home runs and Brady Hohl had one in the Mustangs 9-8 win over Lincoln Southeast. The Knight's had 13 hits in the loss.
7. In the consolation game of the North Star tournament against Lincoln High, Zach Klapperich doubled in the winning run in the bottom of the 9th inning, and Joe Hartley contributed two RBI's. North Star's Nate Wilder threw 4 2/3 scoreless relief innings with 7 strikeouts to earn the win, and Jake Benne was 4 for 5 at the plate.
8. In the win over Benson, Norfolk's Brant Ristau fanned five in five innings, and teammate Andrew Rutten drove in three runs. Benson's Jackson Righter homered for the Bunnies.
9. Bryan's Lars Trizila threw a five-hit complete game shutout against Westside.
10. In the win over Bergan, Prep's Jace Anderson gave up only two hits in five innings of work to earn the win.
11. Omaha Roncalli's Joe Bircher and Mike Nowak combined to throw a one-hitter in the Pride's win over Bellevue West. Bircher struck out ten and gave up just one hit in five innings. Nowak struck out three in the final two innings and did not allow a baserunner.
12. Millard West's Danny Marcuzzo hit two home runs, and Steve Jensen hit one out in the Wildcat's win over Elkhorn.
13. In Elkhorn's win over Lincoln Southeast the Antlers pounded out seventeen hits as Jake Ritzdorf went 5 for 5 with three runs scored, Jeff Hansen was 3 for 4, including a home run, and Zack Hoock had 2 doubles and 3 RBI's.
14. Papio South's Adam Dunaway picked up his fourth win of the season in the game against Lincoln Northeast and also homered in the game along with teammates Josh Milz, Kendall Wehrle, Anthony Dunn and Connell.
15. Skutt's Zach Croonquist, a 6'8" junior righty, pitched 5 shutout innings, allowing only 2 hits, both in the first inning and finished by retiring the final nine batters he faced in order. The Skyhawks scored all 7 of their runs in the bottom of the fifth in which Peyton Brannen ripped a 2 run double.
16. In the first game of a doubleheader sweep of Omaha South, Seward's Kyle Einspahr struck out seven and hit two triples. John Samuelson had two RBI's and stole two bases for the Bluejays.
17. Nate Zook of Grand Island drove in seven runs with two home runs in two games in the Papio South tournament, a grand slam against Beatrice and a three run shot against Papio South. Catcher Slade Bolles, who is DH'ing while resting a sore elbow, was 2-for-2 with three walks and three RBIs and a 2-run homer in Beatrice game. Bolles, who is the nephew of Lincoln North Star head coach Lanny Bolles, called all of the pitches for the GI pitchers from the dugout.
18. Brian Boro of Gross was 4 for 5 at the plate and got the win on the mound against Columbus, scattering six hits and striking out eight. Kurt Farmer of Columbus was 2 for 4 in the game with a home run.
19. Nebraska City's Logan Ehlers (heretofore known to us only for his pitching prowess) went 4 for 4 with a double and 2 RBI in the Pioneers' win over Omaha North. The Vikings' Nick Marcuzzo hit a 3-run homerun, his second of the season. Travis Peterson earned the win for Nebraska City.
Daily Calendar for Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Varsity games played Monday, April 7:
Omaha Bryan 12, Omaha South 8
Gretna 5, Ralston 3
Omaha Skutt Catholic 13, Wahoo 2 Bellevue West 4, Nebraska City 2 Bellevue East 8, Omaha Central 1 Lincoln North Star 11, Lincoln East 0 Millard North 11, Omaha Gross Catholic 3 Omaha Benson 2, Douglas County West 1 Omaha Burke 11, Omaha North 0 (5 inn.) Omaha Creighton Prep 11, Millard West 1 (5 inn.) Papillion-LaVista South 8, Omaha Northwest 0 Millard South 3, Papillion-LaVista 0 Beatrice 2, Elkhorn 0
See additional information on Main Menu > Tournaments
Varsity games scheduled for Tuesday, April 8:
Millard North @ Bellevue West Lincoln Pius X @ Crete Omaha Skutt Catholic @ Fremont Bergan Lincoln North Star @ Grand Island Lincoln North Star @ Grand Island Lincoln High @ Millard South Ralston @ Norris Omaha Benson @ Omaha Gross Catholic Omaha Creighton Prep @ Omaha Northwest Papillion-LaVista @ Omaha Westside Douglas County West @ Wahoo
Cancellations / Postponements: (unofficial)
Blair @ Beatrice
Norfolk @ Lincoln Southeast Norfolk @ Lincoln Southeast
Millard West @ Lincoln Southwest Millard West @ Lincoln Southwest
Omaha Central @ Nebraska City Omaha Central @ Nebraska City
Notes and Comments:
1. Wow! Class # 1 Prep's 11-1 five-inning win over Millard West was a bit of a shocker. You would expect Joe Holtmeyer to throw some serious heat and Ryan Briggs to do some damage with his bat, but we anticipated a closer game. Let's see if the two get matched up again in this weekend in the Metro Conference Tourney. It would be fun to see a three-game weekend series between these two teams sometime a la college ball.
2. Nebraska City's Logan Ehlers (1-2) had it going again Monday afternoon, this time striking out 20 in a losing cause against Bellevue West. The sophomore lefty rang up 19 K's earlier in the season against Wahoo.
3. Ralston dropped its second game in a row to a sub .500 team after winning its first six. The Rams fell to Gretna (4-7) on Monday by a score of 5-3 after losing to South Sioux City (2-7) on Saturday.
4. The Pius - Seward game was suspended on account of rain after an inning and a half with Pius leading 12-0. By agreement of the coaches and officials, the game will count as a win for NSAA purposes.
5. NSAA is reporting reporting that Beatrice (5-9) defeated Class B #3 Elkhorn (8-6) by a score of 2-0 yesterday. The Antlers were coming off an impressive #3 finish in the Millard West tournament.
Outstanding Performances:
1. Prep junior outfielder Ryan Briggs hit a three-run homer, tripled and singled in the winning run in a five RBI performance against Millard West. Second baseman Max Huerter drove in four runs for the Junior Jays. Joe Holtmeyer improved to 3-0, allowing just three hits and striking out seven in five innings.
2. Bellevue East's junior righthander Matt Tew threw a complete game 5-hitter for a win against Central, striking out four. The Chieftain's Tyler Splichal drove in five runs on two hits, and Ryan Keele had a solo home run.
3. Skutt's junior catcher Ryan Bolt had 6 RBI's to lead the Skyhawks over Wahoo, all in the 3rd inning. Bolt belted a grand slam, then came up again later in the inning and drove in two more runs with a bases loaded single. Austin Cole struck oiut 10 and allowed only 2 hits in 4 2/3 innings.
4. Ryan Scheetz and Nate Bence led Millard North over Gross with a combined seven RBI's.
5. Gretna second baseman Matt Schuetz flashed some leather with four big defensive plays to help the Dragons defeat Ralston.
6. Lincoln North Star's Zach Klapperich and Jake Branum were each 2 for 3 at the plate, and Branum drove in two runs to lead the Gators over Lincoln East. Ricky Ideus also drove in two runs, and Jacob Hiatt pitched six shutout innings, allowing only four hits and striking out four.
7. Benson's Jackson Righter struck out 10 against DC West, and Kelvin Crandell homered in the top of the seventh to give the Bunnies a 2-1 win.
8. Millard South speedster Ty Kildow tripled in 2 runs in the Patriot's 3-run top of the seventh after six scoreless innings at Papio. Tyler Brown got the win with 7 K's.
9. Bryan's Nick Foreman scored three times and drove in three runs on three hits in the Bears' win at South and also earned a save in relief of Aaron Beil who struck out 12.
10. Papio South's Michael Albert and Mark Harris each had 3 hits, and Anthony Dunn pitched 4 innings of 1 hit ball to earn the shutout win over Northwest.
11. After a week-long layoff for the Bulldogs, Tyler Paulsen, Erik Buckallew, Conor Kingsbury and Zach Weinandt combined for 8 hits and 5 RBI's to lead Burke over North.
Daily Calendar for Wednesday, April 9, 2008
12 Game Days left until District Assignment and Seeding on April 23
Varsity games played Tuesday, April 8:
Lincoln Pius X 10, Crete 1 Omaha Skutt Catholic 18, Fremont Bergan 3 (6 inn.) Lincoln North Star 7, Grand Island 5 Lincoln North Star @ Grand Island [2nd gamenot played]
Omaha Gross Catholic 12, Omaha Benson 1 (5 inn.) Omaha Creighton Prep 7, Omaha Northwest 1 Omaha Westside 2, Papillion-LaVista 0 Wahoo 8, Douglas County West 6
Ralston @ Norris [awaiting score]
Cancellations / Postponements: (unofficial)
Blair @ Beatrice
Norfolk @ Lincoln Southeast Norfolk @ Lincoln Southeast
Millard West @ Lincoln Southwest Millard West @ Lincoln Southwest
Omaha Central @ Nebraska City Omaha Central @ Nebraska City
Millard North @ Bellevue West
Lincoln High @ Millard South
Varsity games scheduled for Wednesday, April 9:
Omaha Creighton Prep @ Bellevue East Omaha Burke @ Millard North Omaha Central @ Millard West Omaha Central @ Millard West Omaha Northwest @ Omaha Bryan Ralston @ Omaha Gross Catholic Bellevue West @ Omaha North Omaha South @ Papillion-LaVista South
See additional information on Main Menu > Tournaments
Notes and Comments:
1. Hooray for back-to-back high school baseball stories in the Omaha World Herald. Yesterday's edition included a nice write-up of the Prep vs. Millard West game. Today we have an article highlighting Papio South as the #1 seed in the Metro Conference Tournament. Nice job, Mike Patterson and OWH.
2. Speaking of Mike Patterson, he wants stats from coaches this morning in order to prepare his listing of Statistical Category Leaders. Wouldn't it be nice if all 42 coaches responded so that we have a complete (and hopefully accurate) listing of the accomplishments of these young men? With post-season honors hanging in the balance, it would be great to have stats from every team.
3. Rain knocked out about half of Tuesday's schedule. Teams trying to rest pitchers for the Metro and HAC tourneys probably didn't mind too much.
4. Today's schedule, on the eve of the big conference tourneys, does include some good match-ups, including Class A #1 Prep (14-0) at #10 Bellevue East (8-5), Class A #5 Burke (8-1) at #4 Millard North (11-3) and Class B #2 Ralston (6-2) at #4 Gross (7-5).
5. On a daily basis from now on, we'll put the number of game days remaining until the date of district assignment and district tournament seeding (April 23) at the top of the Calendar for two reasons: (1) to remind everyone that the scramble for wild points to obtain advantageous seeding in district tournaments is quickly coming to a close, and (2) to display our continuing annoyance with the NSAA for making this deadline five days sooner than in the past for absolutely no reason other than the convenience of their administrative staff. The wild card points race continues through the end of district tournaments for determining the state tournament seeding and the wild card teams that will go to state (2 in Class A, 4 in Class B).
Outstanding Performances:
1. Prep junior Max Huerter followed up Monday's four RBI performance against Millard West by earning his first varsity win on the mound Tuesday afternoon against Northwest. ('Scuse me, but just how many pitchers does Prep have anyway?)
2. Mike Schenkelberg of Skutt struck out 12 for the win against Fremont Bergan while teammates Peyton Brannen and Andrew Gard each drove in four runs. The Skyhawks had nine extra base hits in the game (4 doubles and 5 triples).
3. Lincoln North Star was able to get a big win while resting their starters as sophomore Anthony Ruhl earned a win over Grand Island in his first varsity pitching appearance, throwing 5 1/3 innings, allowing 4 runs on 7 hits and striking out 2. Jared Ryder earned the save and went 3 for 3 with a walk, hitting in the #9 spot. GI's Casey Griffin was 3 for 3 with 3 RBI's and two home runs. Kash Kalkowski also had a solo shot for the Islanders.
4. Westside's Tim Sockrider picked up a win over Papio to edge closer to the all-time Warriors' wins record. (We'll get an update as to where the count stands at this point.) The senior right-hander struck out nine in a five-hit shutout against the slumping Monarchs (lost 7 of their last 8).
5. Ben Grandjenett drove in what turned out to be the winning run in the bottom of the sixth to give Wahoo and starting pitcher Kerry Schachenmeyer their second win of the season. Clint Ohnoutka earned the save against DC West.
Daily Calendar for Thursday, April 10, 2008
11 Game Days left until District Assignment and Seeding on April 23
Update: No tournament games will be played this weekend. A decision will be made tomorrow on whether to try to play the tournament Monday and Tuesday per Mike Rasmussen, LSE Ass't AD.
Notes and Comments:
Nathan Smejkal
Omaha Burke
1. Looks like the consecutive wins streak ends at 12 for Burke pitcher Nate Smejkal. Smejkal posted ten consecutive wins during the summer and was 2-0 for the spring until the Class A #5 Dawgs 13-5 loss to #4 Millard North last night. Congratulations to Nate and his teammates for an impressive string of wins.
2. Speaking of pitchers' records, here's the update on the Tim Sockrider countdown, courtesy of Westside Assistant Coach Jim Simons: Tuesday's win over Papio was the 13th of the senior righthander's career. The school record is 17, shared by Sam Murphy (2003-2006) and Drew Schwab (2001-2004). So, it's four more wins to tie, five more for Tim to own the record outright.
3. Unfortunately, the story of the day is weather, with forecasts of rain, wind, possible snow showers and cold temperatures over the next couple of days threatening the Metro and HAC Conference tournaments. Twelve games are on the schedule today in the Metro, and three more are on tap in the Heartland Conference Tournament in Lincoln. We will provide updated schedule information for both tournaments as we receive it.
4. Class B #2 Ralston (7-2) bounced back from two straight losses yesterday with an 8-2 win yesterday at #4 Gross (7-6). Derek Landis improved to 4-0 for the Rams, who earned the win against Gross standout Brian Boro.
5. Class A #1 Prep, the only undefeated team in the state at 15-0, continues to roll, with a 12-3 win over #10 Bellevue East (8-6) at Roddy yesterday. Next weekend (April 17-19) the Junior Bluejays will head south of the border to play in a tournament in Lawrence, Kansas which typically features some pretty strong teams from Lawrence and the Kansas City metro area.
6. According to a report published in the Omaha World Herald on Tuesday, Millard North pitcher / outfield Eric Ringbloom signed a letter of intent yesterday to play baseball at the University of Nebraska Kearney. The three-sport athlete was first team All-Nebraska in football. [Note: the rainy weather will give us a little time to create an on-line form for members of the 2008 and 2009 classes to tell us of their commitments to play college ball. Watch for a link soon on the "Online Forms" option on the Main Menu.]
Outstanding Performances:
1. Tyler Niederklein of Millard West earned his third win of the season with a complete game four-hitter against Central, striking out seven. Designated hitter Jesse Vervelde was 3 for 4 on the day with a double, an RBI and two runs scored.
2. Josh Raburn of Prep picked up his third win in the Bellevue East game as he and fellow southpaw Charlie Krueger combined for 12 K's. Derek Nelson doubled and homered for the Junior Bluejays.
3. In Omaha Bryan's win over Benson, Nick Dozier struck out eight and gave up only three hits for the Bears. One game wasn't enough on a cold night for the hardy Bears, who also defeated Northwest, 10-5.
4. Papio South's Evan Connell had three hits in the win over South and also earned the victory on the mound. Mark Harris, Mathias Godsil and Beau Suponchick each had 2 hits for the 13-1 Titans.
5. Bellevue West's Kyle King went 4 for 4 at the plate with 2 RBI's, and Mike O'Donnell had a double and 3 RBI's in the win over North.
6. Storm Throne of Millard South earned his third win as Andy Peacock, Nick Schriever and Pat Burkhart each drove in two runs apiece in the Patriot's 11-4 win over Lincoln East.
7. Millard North's Nate Bence and Zach Pfeiffer each drove in three runs in the Mustangs' win over Burke. Luke Abkes improved to 2-0 with the win.
Daily Calendar for Friday, April 11, 2008
10 Game Days left until District Assignment and Seeding on April 23
Thank for your support of Nebraska High School Baseball and this website.
Thanks to your interest and support we have had more than 20,000 hits in the past 40 days. Combined with the 86,000+ hits on the MetroPreps site, we are over 100,000 hits since May 2006. This traffic count is just one of many signs that interest in Nebraska high school baseball is on the rise.
Varsity games scheduled for Friday, April 11:
Metro Conference Tournament:
Update: Tournament will be played Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday of next week, provided fields are ready on Monday. Previously scheduled games that conflict with Monday's schedule will need to be re-scheduled.
1. The big story of the day (besides the weather) is the publication of "High School Baseball Leaders" in this morning's edition of the Omaha World Herald. Congratulations to all of the statistical leaders (see below) and to all of the coaches and parents who had a hand in the development of these ballplayers. It looks like coaches from around the state did a nice job of getting stats in to the World Herald as many teams are represented.
2. More rain, but look on the bright side -- this is an opportunity to get some rest, get your tax returns completed and take care of those items that you were neglecting by going to fifteen baseball games over the past few weeks.
3. We'll try to keep you updated on the status of the Metro Tourney, the HAC Tourney and the Elkhorn-Blair-DC West Tourney. [Note: snow is falling as I look out my window. Oh great.]
4. Creighton Prep (15-0) is ranked #13 nationally by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, a publication out of Tucson, Arizona that has been ranking teams for forty years. The Junior Bluejays are also #23 in the USA Today's Baseball Super 25 for April 8. Congratulations, Coach Mooney and crew. It's great to see a Nebraska baseball being recognized nationally.
5. Coaches, while waiting for the infields to dry, you might want to take a look at the list of "missing scores" on the NSAA Wild Card Points page and give Jim Angele a call or shoot him an email to let him know of any scores or cancellations.
6. As indicated yesterday, we are in the process of compiling a database of college baseball commitments for the 2008 and 2009 graduating classes. If you or a player on your team has committed to a college to play baseball after graduation, please use the "Where are you going to play College Ball?" form on the "Online Forms" link of the Main Menu. As soon as we start receiving your responses, we will add a page on here with a growing list of commitments.
Outstanding Performances:
Statistical category leaders as compiled by the Omaha World Herald, April 11, 2008. The following are the top-ranked individuals in each category. See newspaper for a complete listing.
NEBRASKA HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL STATISTICAL CATEGORY LEADERS, APRIL 11, 2008
Class A
Class B
Hitting - Batting Average
Zane Hinkel, Creighton Prep, .674
Austin Burke, DC West, .588
Hitting - Total Hits
Zane Hinkel, Creighton Prep, 29
Jaime Johnson, Omaha Skutt, .18
Hitting - Doubles
Nick Schriever, Millard South, 9
Brandon Winkelmann, Omaha Gross, 6
Hitting - Triples
Brandon Bass, Millard West, 4
Ty Kildow, Millard South, 4
Adam Kresl, Omaha Gross, 2 John Elliott, Omaha Skutt, 2
Andrew Gard, Omaha Skutt 2
Kyle Einspahr, Seward 2
Hitting - Home Runs
Luke Abkes, Millard North, 4
Mike Nowak, Omaha Roncalli 3
Hitting - RBI's
Colton Thomas, Millard South, 22
Andrew Gard, Omaha Skutt, 13
Hitting - Runs Scored
Zane Hinkel, Creighton Prep, 23
Jaime Johnson, Omaha Skutt, 18
Baserunning - Stolen Bases
Blake Brisson, Millard North, 16
Jaime Johnson, Omaha Skutt, 14
Pitching - Wins
Adam Dunaway, Papillion-LaVista South, 4
Joe Bircher, Omaha Roncalli, 4 Alex Terry, Omaha Roncalli,4
Derek Landis, Ralston, 4
Pitching - ERA
Joe Holtmeyer, Creighton Prep, 0.00
Josh Raburn, Creighton Prep, 0.00
Zach Weinandt, Omaha Burke, 0.00
Joe Bircher, Omaha Roncalli, 0.32
Pitching - Stikeouts
Danny Pierce, Bellevue East, 34
Logan Ehlers, Nebraska City, 55
Saves
Dylan Meier, Grand Island, 2
Jacob Swift, Millard North, 2
Ryan Muehling, Millard North, 2
Tyler Niederklein, Millard West, 2
Jimmy McDonald, Omaha Burke, 2
Mike Nowak, Omaha Roncalli, 2
Daily Calendar for Saturday, April 12, 2008
9 Game Days left until District Assignment and Seeding on April 23
A Head for Baseball: Beatrice pitcher Justin Wittler contemplates the zen of baseball while watching his team compete against Lincoln Northeast in the Papio South tournament last weekend.
Varsity games scheduled for Saturday, April 12:
Metro Conference Tournament:
Tournament will be played Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday of next week, provided fields are ready on Monday. Previously scheduled games that conflict with Monday's schedule will need to be re-scheduled.
No games Saturday. First round and semi's will be played Monday. Championship to be scheduled once semi-finals winners are determined.
Updated information: Monday's game between East and Southwest will start at 5:00 rather than 3:00 due to umpire schedule conflict. The winner will play North Star immediately following (approx. 7:00). Both games at Den Hartog.
Omaha Gross Catholic @ Norfolk (DH) (cancelled) Beatrice @ South Sioux City (cancelled)
Notes and Comments:
1. The rescheduling of opening round games and semifinals of the Heartland Athletic Conference Tournament and the Metro Conference Tournament for Monday and Tuesday will require rescheduling or postponement of games previously schedule for those dates. Monday's revamped tournament schedule is subject to fields being ready to play. Keep your fingers crossed.
2. Pushing the two big conference tournaments into next week makes it a loaded week for tournament play. Already on the schedule for next weekend are the River Cities Conference Tournament, the Papillion-LaVista Invitational, the Spartan Invitational and the Norfolk Invitational.
3. Thanks to the addition of South Sioux City, the River Cities Conference Tournament will be a six-team event this year with the remainder of the tournament field including: Class B #1 Roncalli, #2 Ralston, #4 Omaha Gross, #5 Omaha Skutt and unranked Beatrice. We'll publish the bracket and tournament information as soon as we get it.
4. Prep will play in the twenty-four team River City Baseball Festival on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, to be played at three locations in Kansas City, KS and Lawrence, KS. The tournament will feature teams from Lawrence, the Kansas City metro area and Missouri. The Junior Bluejays deep pitching staff will be tested this week if the Metro Tourney goes forward as scheduled on Monday through Wednesday. In the River City Festival, Prep will play one game on Thursday, one on Friday and two on Saturday.
5. While on the subject of tournaments, it should be noted that next weekend (April 18-19) is the last weekend of tournament games that will count towards seeding of district tournaments. Thanks to the oft-mentioned and oft-maligned NSAA change in the district tournament seeding date (now ten days prior to districts rather than five days as in the past), the Millard South Tournament, the Bellevue West Invitational and the Ram Invite on the weekend of April 24-26 will fall after the April 23 seeding date.
6. Local ESPN AM radio affiliate, 1620 The Zone, has agreed to report Metro area baseball scores provided by BaseballNebraska.com on the air each morning as part of their local sports report. In order to make this happen, we'll need coaches and Team Reporters to make a diligent effort to report scores to us promptly after every game. This is a nice opportunity to promote Nebraska high school baseball, and if it works well, we'll expand the delivery of scores to other broadcast media outlets across the state.
7. For the record, snowflakes are falling as this is being written.
Outstanding Performances:
Statistical category leaders as compiled by the Omaha World Herald, April 11, 2008. The following are the top-ranked individuals in each category. See newspaper for a complete listing.
NEBRASKA HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL STATISTICAL CATEGORY LEADERS, APRIL 11, 2008
Class A
Class B
Hitting - Batting Average
Zane Hinkel, Creighton Prep, .674
Austin Burke, DC West, .588
Hitting - Total Hits
Zane Hinkel, Creighton Prep, 29
Jaime Johnson, Omaha Skutt, .18
Hitting - Doubles
Nick Schriever, Millard South, 9
Brandon Winkelmann, Omaha Gross, 6
Hitting - Triples
Brandon Bass, Millard West, 4
Ty Kildow, Millard South, 4
Adam Kresl, Omaha Gross, 2 John Elliott, Omaha Skutt, 2
Andrew Gard, Omaha Skutt 2
Kyle Einspahr, Seward 2
Hitting - Home Runs
Luke Abkes, Millard North, 4
Mike Nowak, Omaha Roncalli 3
Hitting - RBI's
Colton Thomas, Millard South, 22
Andrew Gard, Omaha Skutt, 13
Hitting - Runs Scored
Zane Hinkel, Creighton Prep, 23
Jaime Johnson, Omaha Skutt, 18
Baserunning - Stolen Bases
Blake Brisson, Millard North, 16
Jaime Johnson, Omaha Skutt, 14
Pitching - Wins
Adam Dunaway, Papillion-LaVista South, 4
Joe Bircher, Omaha Roncalli, 4 Alex Terry, Omaha Roncalli,4
Derek Landis, Ralston, 4
Pitching - ERA
Joe Holtmeyer, Creighton Prep, 0.00
Josh Raburn, Creighton Prep, 0.00
Zach Weinandt, Omaha Burke, 0.00
Joe Bircher, Omaha Roncalli, 0.32
Pitching - Stikeouts
Danny Pierce, Bellevue East, 34
Logan Ehlers, Nebraska City, 55
Saves
Dylan Meier, Grand Island, 2
Jacob Swift, Millard North, 2
Ryan Muehling, Millard North, 2
Tyler Niederklein, Millard West, 2
Jimmy McDonald, Omaha Burke, 2
Mike Nowak, Omaha Roncalli, 2
Daily Calendar for Sunday, April 13, 2008
8 Game Days left until District Assignment and Seeding on April 23
No games played due to rain (and snow and cold and wind).
Senior Gators: (l-r) Jared Ryder, Jacob Hiatt, Jake Benne, Nate Wilder, Ricky Ideus.
The Bassh Bros.: (left) Millard West junior shortstop Brandon Bass, (right) sophomore second baseman Brett Bass.
Senior Patriots: (back, l-r) Pat Burkart, David Ross, Ryan Rohmiller, Tyler Brown, Nick Schiever; (front, l-r) Alex King, Jon Kilgore.
Varsity games scheduled for Monday, April 14:
Metro Conference Tournament:
Rain-delayed tournament is scheduled to get underway at four locations at 3:30 on Monday, field conditions permitting. Original pairings and game times remain in effect. Championship to be scheduled once semi-finals winners are determined. See Updated tournament information.
Heartland Athletic Conference Tournament:
First round and semi's are scheduled to be played Monday at Den Hartog and Sherman. Championship to be scheduled once semi-finals winners are determined. See Updated tournament information
Lincoln East @ Papillion-LaVista Omaha Creighton Prep @ Ralston
Wahoo @ Omaha Benson
Presumed to be postponed due to rescheduling of HAC tournament:
Grand Island @ Norfolk
Lincoln High @ Lincoln Northeast
Notes and Comments:
1. Hooray!! The sun is shining. Let's hope that all of the ballfields have a chance to dry out enough today and tomorrow so that the Metro and HAC tourneys can go forward as rescheduled.
2. Class B contenders Ralston (#2) and Elkhorn (#3) will face off Monday at 5:00 at Ralston. Ralston has been tough with Derek Landis on the mound. His last outing was a win over Gross last Wednesday, which improved his record to 4-0. The Rams are likely to throw him Monday and still have him available for River Cities Conference Tournament action this weeked.
3. Lincoln North Star earned the bye in the HAC Tourney so a win in Monday evening's 7:00 game against the East vs. Southwest winner would put the Gators into the Championship Game against the semifinal winner coming out of the Sherman bracket. The Championship will be scheduled once the two seminfinals winners have been determined.
4. Tom Shatel notes in the OWH today that Wichita State coach Gene Stephenson has been advocating for many years that the college baseball season start in April and conclude with mid-August tournaments. Based on the weather this wintery spring, that sounds like a pretty good idea for Nebraska high school baseball.
5. As noted yesterday, we have a great opportunity to promote high school baseball in Nebraska by providing scores and other information to ESPN radio affiliate, KOZN 1620 AM, for airing during their local sports segments. To get comprehensive, accurate and timely scores to the broadcast media, we're going to need to fill in some holes very quickly in the BaseballNebraska.com reporting network. Here is a list of all teams in the state with the "reporting vacancies" highlighted in yellow. We've asked coaches to please designate a Team Reporter for their team as soon as possible. If any readers for a particular team have an interest in serving as the designated Team Reporter for their team, please contact your coach right away. The Team Reporter can be an assistant coach, parent, responsible player or fan. We'd like to fill in all of the gaps in the system this week. If a lot of folks can each do a little, together we can make a difference!
6. Another push this week that needs a little help from Team Reporters is to get Team Rosters online for each team. College coaches regularly visit this site, so having roster information with names, graduation year, "throws right/left," "hits right/left," height and weight is very helpful to recruiters. Also, we are continuing to get headshots of players for as many teams as possible to add to the rosters. We have photographed 17 teams to this point. See the rosters for Pius, Lincoln Southeast, Prep and Papillion-LaVista for examples of what this can look like. We also have headshots uploaded for Burke, Lincoln Northeast, Omaha Northwest, Gretna, Millard West, Papillion-LaVista South, Grand Island, Gross, Beatrice, Bellevue East, Millard South and Bellevue West. For those teams, we just need the Team Reporter to upload the roster and link the headshots to the player names.
7. Hope everyone has rested up during the past three days. Nice weather is coming our way, and it's going a be a fun and wild ride to the finish line!
Outstanding Performances:
Statistical category leaders as compiled by the Omaha World Herald, April 11, 2008. The following are the top-ranked individuals in each category. See newspaper for a complete listing.
NEBRASKA HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL STATISTICAL CATEGORY LEADERS, APRIL 11, 2008
Class A
Class B
Hitting - Batting Average
Zane Hinkel, Creighton Prep, .674
Austin Burke, DC West, .588
Hitting - Total Hits
Zane Hinkel, Creighton Prep, 29
Jaime Johnson, Omaha Skutt, .18
Hitting - Doubles
Nick Schriever, Millard South, 9
Brandon Winkelmann, Omaha Gross, 6
Hitting - Triples
Brandon Bass, Millard West, 4
Ty Kildow, Millard South, 4
Adam Kresl, Omaha Gross, 2 John Elliott, Omaha Skutt, 2
Andrew Gard, Omaha Skutt 2
Kyle Einspahr, Seward 2
Hitting - Home Runs
Luke Abkes, Millard North, 4
Mike Nowak, Omaha Roncalli 3
Hitting - RBI's
Colton Thomas, Millard South, 22
Andrew Gard, Omaha Skutt, 13
Hitting - Runs Scored
Zane Hinkel, Creighton Prep, 23
Jaime Johnson, Omaha Skutt, 18
Baserunning - Stolen Bases
Blake Brisson, Millard North, 16
Jaime Johnson, Omaha Skutt, 14
Pitching - Wins
Adam Dunaway, Papillion-LaVista South, 4
Joe Bircher, Omaha Roncalli, 4 Alex Terry, Omaha Roncalli,4
Derek Landis, Ralston, 4
Pitching - ERA
Joe Holtmeyer, Creighton Prep, 0.00
Josh Raburn, Creighton Prep, 0.00
Zach Weinandt, Omaha Burke, 0.00
Joe Bircher, Omaha Roncalli, 0.32
Pitching - Stikeouts
Danny Pierce, Bellevue East, 34
Logan Ehlers, Nebraska City, 55
Saves
Dylan Meier, Grand Island, 2
Jacob Swift, Millard North, 2
Ryan Muehling, Millard North, 2
Tyler Niederklein, Millard West, 2
Jimmy McDonald, Omaha Burke, 2
Mike Nowak, Omaha Roncalli, 2
Daily Calendar for Monday, April 14, 2008
8 Game Days left until District Assignment and Seeding on April 23
No games played due to rain (and snow and cold and wind).
Millard West's Danny Marcuzzo is best known as a pitcher for the Wildcats but has turned some heads with his bat, being among the state leaders in home runs with 3 and having a 4 for 4 outing against Bellevue East.
Papillion-LaVista HS Head Coach Jim Thomas, in his 34th year at the helm, is the dean of Nebraska HS coaches.
Lincoln Southeast Head Coach Randy Brolhorst is in his 29th year as head coach of the Knights.
Varsity games scheduled for Monday, April 14:
Metro Conference Tournament:
Rain-delayed tournament will get underway at four locations at 3:30 on Monday, with all fields ready for play according to Tournament Director Chuck Johnston. Original pairings and game times remain in effect. Championship to be scheduled once semi-finals winners are determined. See Updated tournament information.
Heartland Athletic Conference Tournament:
First round and semi's are scheduled to be played Monday at Den Hartog and Sherman. Championship to be scheduled once semi-finals winners are determined. See Updated tournament information
Lincoln East @ Papillion-LaVista Omaha Creighton Prep @ Ralston
Wahoo @ Omaha Benson
Presumed to be postponed due to rescheduling of HAC tournament:
Grand Island @ Norfolk
Lincoln High @ Lincoln Northeast
Notes and Comments:
1. The past idle weekend? Call that the "Calm before the Storm." The next 8 game days until District Assignment and District Tournament Seeding occurs next Wednesday, the 23rd, will be a mad scramble for Wild Card Points, amidst plenty of tournament action. Not only will the top teams be vying for the #1 seed, the "have nots" will be fighting to avoid an extra "play in" game in the two five-team districts and to avoid being the #4 seed (which will play #1) in the four-team districts. We will provide a "daily snapshot" of the current District Assignment and District Tournament Seeding each day from here on out for Class A and Class B. | Class A Snapshot | Class B Snapshot |
2. The Metro and HAC Tournaments get underway today with the unusual proviso that scheduling of the championship games for both tournaments is on a "to be determined" basis, pending the outcome of Tuesday's semifinals. Not knowing when the championship game will be played (whether it's Wednesday or a week from Tuesday) has to have coaches scratching their heads about how to set up their pitching. Will a team that spends all of its pitching to win the semi's drag its feet about scheduling the Championship until its staff is rested? An interesting set-up this year. Blame the weatherman.
3. Tournaments coming up this week: HAC and Metro today and Tuesday (with finals TBD), to be followed by the River Cities Conference Tournament this weekend, along with the Papillion-LaVista Invitational, the Spartan Invitational and the Norfolk Invitational.
4. Class B contenders Ralston (#2) and Elkhorn (#3) will face off Monday at 5:00 at Ralston. Ralston has been tough with Derek Landis on the mound. His last outing was a win over Gross last Wednesday, which improved his record to 4-0. The Rams are likely to throw him Monday and still have him available for River Cities Conference Tournament action this weeked.
5. As noted yesterday, we have a great opportunity to promote high school baseball in Nebraska by providing scores and other information to ESPN radio affiliate, KOZN 1620 AM, for airing during their local sports segments. To get comprehensive, accurate and timely scores to the broadcast media, we're going to need to fill in some holes very quickly in the BaseballNebraska.com reporting network. Here is a list of all teams in the state with the "reporting vacancies" highlighted in yellow. We've asked coaches to please designate a Team Reporter for their team as soon as possible. If any readers for a particular team have an interest in serving as the designated Team Reporter for their team, please contact your coach right away. The Team Reporter can be an assistant coach, parent, responsible player or fan. We'd like to fill in all of the gaps in the system this week. If a lot of folks can each do a little, together we can make a difference!
6. Another push this week that needs a little help from Team Reporters is to get Team Rosters online for each team. College coaches regularly visit this site, so having roster information with names, graduation year, "throws right/left," "hits right/left," height and weight is very helpful to recruiters. Also, we are continuing to get headshots of players for as many teams as possible to add to the rosters. We have photographed 17 teams to this point. See the rosters for Pius, Lincoln Southeast, Prep and Papillion-LaVista for examples of what this can look like. We also have headshots uploaded for Burke, Lincoln Northeast, Omaha Northwest, Gretna, Millard West, Papillion-LaVista South, Grand Island, Gross, Beatrice, Bellevue East, Millard South and Bellevue West. For those teams, we just need the Team Reporter to upload the roster and link the headshots to the player names.
Outstanding Performances:
Statistical category leaders as compiled by the Omaha World Herald, April 11, 2008. The following are the top-ranked individuals in each category. See newspaper for a complete listing.
NEBRASKA HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL STATISTICAL CATEGORY LEADERS, APRIL 11, 2008
Class A
Class B
Hitting - Batting Average
Zane Hinkel, Creighton Prep, .674
Austin Burke, DC West, .588
Hitting - Total Hits
Zane Hinkel, Creighton Prep, 29
Jaime Johnson, Omaha Skutt, .18
Hitting - Doubles
Nick Schriever, Millard South, 9
Brandon Winkelmann, Omaha Gross, 6
Hitting - Triples
Brandon Bass, Millard West, 4
Ty Kildow, Millard South, 4
Adam Kresl, Omaha Gross, 2 John Elliott, Omaha Skutt, 2
Andrew Gard, Omaha Skutt 2
Kyle Einspahr, Seward 2
Hitting - Home Runs
Luke Abkes, Millard North, 4
Mike Nowak, Omaha Roncalli 3
Hitting - RBI's
Colton Thomas, Millard South, 22
Andrew Gard, Omaha Skutt, 13
Hitting - Runs Scored
Zane Hinkel, Creighton Prep, 23
Jaime Johnson, Omaha Skutt, 18
Baserunning - Stolen Bases
Blake Brisson, Millard North, 16
Jaime Johnson, Omaha Skutt, 14
Pitching - Wins
Adam Dunaway, Papillion-LaVista South, 4
Joe Bircher, Omaha Roncalli, 4 Alex Terry, Omaha Roncalli,4
Derek Landis, Ralston, 4
Pitching - ERA
Joe Holtmeyer, Creighton Prep, 0.00
Josh Raburn, Creighton Prep, 0.00
Zach Weinandt, Omaha Burke, 0.00
Joe Bircher, Omaha Roncalli, 0.32
Pitching - Stikeouts
Danny Pierce, Bellevue East, 34
Logan Ehlers, Nebraska City, 55
Saves
Dylan Meier, Grand Island, 2
Jacob Swift, Millard North, 2
Ryan Muehling, Millard North, 2
Tyler Niederklein, Millard West, 2
Jimmy McDonald, Omaha Burke, 2
Mike Nowak, Omaha Roncalli, 2
Daily Calendar for Tuesday, April 15, 2008
7 Game Days left until District Assignment and Seeding on April 23
At Westside: 3:30 North vs. Bellevue East 5:45 Central vs. Burke 8:00 Semifinals: Omaha Bryan vs. Westside
At Fricke:
3:30 South vs. Papillion LaVista 5:45 Benson vs. Northwest 8:00 Semifinals: Millard North vs. Millard West
Heartland Athletic Conference Tournament
Championship Game between Lincoln Southeast and Lincoln North Star will be played at 5:00 today at Wood Field, home field of Nebraska Wesleyan.
Other Games Scheduled:
4:30 Omaha Roncalli Catholic @ Ralston
5:00 Nebraska City @ Elkhorn 5:00 Grand Island @ Lincoln Pius
5:00 Norfolk @ Lincoln Northeast 5:00 Omaha Gross Catholic @ Omaha Skutt Catholic 5:30 Columbus @ Fremont Bergan 6:30 Gretna @ Beatrice 6:30 South Sioux City @ Blair 6:30 Crete @ Wahoo 7:00 Lincoln High @ Lincoln East 7:00 Norfolk @ Lincoln Northeast
7:00 Grand Island @ Lincoln Pius X
A happy group of Mustangs, including winning pitcher JR Rehmann (center), following the 5-3 win over previously undefeated Creighton Prep.
Notes and Comments:
1. WOW!!! What an incredible day of baseball! It's like all of the frustration caused by the (hopefully) past dismal weather and missed games got discharged and released all in one day in a huge baseball thunderbolt out of the bright blue spring sky: Millard North over Prep, Bryan over Papio South, Bryan over Bellevue East, Bellevue West over Burke, Millard South coming back from 5 runs down to beat Northwest, Lincoln High upsetting Grand Island in the HAC, Jake Kuebler throwing a no-hitter (missing a perfect game by just a walk and a hit batsman), Norris and Crete reprising their season-opening, nine-inning, one-run margin game -- this time with Norris winning, Elkhorn and Ralston going after it, Beatrice making a run against the Top Class B teams by following last weeks's win over Elkhorn with a win over Skutt, and South Sioux City doing the same. This day of baseball almost (ALMOST) makes the dismal weather wait worthwhile.
Ryan Scheetz
Millard North
2. Eight-seed Bryan (12-9) emerged as the unlikely winner of the Roddy Bracket, defeating top-seeded Papillion-LaVista South 3-2 in the quarterfinals. It was only the second loss of the season for the Titans (13-2). In the opening round the Bears silenced the home crowd at Roddy by handing the host team Bellevue East (8-7) a 3-2 loss. The Bears play Westside tonight at 8:00 in the semifinals at Westside.
3. Millard North vs. Prep at Fricke was full of big moments, especially late in the game. The atmosphere was electric in the top of the seventh as the Mustangs were trying to come back from a run down. With runners on second and third and one out, Blake Bisson battled against Zane Hinkel, turning on a fast ball and driving it deep into the night, but foul, before going down on a 3-2 curve ball. After Prep issued an intentional pass to Brady Hohl to load the bases, a pitch to Ryan Scheetz got away from Prep catcher Tyler O'Brien, allowing the tying run to cross the plate. Scheetz, who had threw a one-hitter earlier in the evening against Papio, then singled to left to drive in two runs and put Prep into a two-run deficit, 5-3. JR Rehmann hung on for the win in a four-hit outing.
4. The Metro Tournament Semifinals tonight at 8:00 will feature Westside vs. Bryan at Westside and Millard North vs. Millard West at Fricke.
5. The HAC semifinal winners, North Star and Southeast, both have open dates today so one would anticipate that the HAC Championship will be played today.
6. The River Cities Conference foes Skutt and Gross square off today at Skutt. The Skyhawks will looking to rebound from a pair of losses yesterday to RCC opponents Beatrice and South Sioux City yesterday. All of this intra-league action sets the stage for this weekend's conference tournament.
7. Pressbox wit: referring to Mustangs Blake Brisson, Brent Benson, Bence, Ben, Brett and Brady, OWH reporter Mike Patterson quipped, "Killer B's."
Outstanding Performances:
1. Millard North's Ryan Scheetz threw a complete game one-hitter against Papillion LaVista in the opening round of the Metro Tournament and drove in three runs in the Mustang's quarterfinal win over Prep, including a two-run base hit in the top of the seventh inning that provided the winning margin.
Jake Kuebler
Lincoln Southeast
2. Senior southpaw JR Rehmann of Millard North threw a complete game three-hitter against previously undefeated Prep, striking out five.
3. Lincoln Southeast's Jake Kuebler threw five perfect innings en route to a seven-inning no hitter against Lincoln High in the semifinals of the HAC torunament to help the Knights advance to the championship against North Star with a 7-0 win.
4. Lars Trizila of Bryan drove in Nick Foreman for the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning against Papio South in the Roddy quarterfinals after Foreman had tripled. Trizila also earned the win on the mound in one inning of relief of starter Jeremy Siderewicz who scattered six hits over six innings and yielded only one earned run. Trizila also earned a save in three scoreless relief innings in the Bears' 3-2 first round win over Bellevue East.
5. Bryan's Dylan Casey drove in two runs in the fourth inning against Bellevue East, and Marcus Madej added two doubles for the Bears. Jesse Glasgow threw four innings, giving up on two earned runs on four hits, for the win.
6. Westside's Tim Sockrider threw a complete game two-hitter with 10 strikeouts in the quarterfinals against Bellevue West to pick up his third win of the season. Jake Rupp added 3 RBIs while Chris Williams had an RBI double and an RBI triple for Westside. The win brings Sockrider within three of the Westside career wins mark of 17.
Bellevue West's Kyle King drives a double to the wall in right center in the Thunderbird's 12-10 upset win over Burke at Westside.
7. In the opening round win over Central, Westside's Ryan Tomlinson threw a complete game three-hitter and also drove in two runs with a double.
8. Elkhorn's Eric Dreesen earned his third win of the season with four shutout innings of relief against Ralston. Tyler Oberembt was 2 for 3 with 3 RBI's for the Antlers. Ralston's Derek Landis drove in four runs with a three-run double and a homerun.
9. Jay Omar of Gretna earned a complete game victory and singled and doubled for the Dragons in the win over Seward.
10. Blair beat Columbus 14-6 after falling behind 6-0 in the second inning. Jake Speicher got the win (2-0), and Jarrett Grabbe was 3-3 (with a HBP) with 3 doubles and 3 RBI's.
11. Millard South's Nick Schriever hit a two-run homerun in the bottom of the sixth inning in the Patriot's come-from-behind win over Omaha Northwest and was 3 for 4 on the night. The Patriots fell behind 7-2 after three innings, tied with five runs in the bottom of the fifth and finally took the lead on Schriever's shot.
12. Millard West's Kyle Fredrickson had three hits and three RBI's in the Wildcat's opening round Metro win over Benson. Mike Tomlinson improved to 3-0, throwing a one-hitter.
13. Tyler Niederlkein had three hits, three RBI's and a three-bagger to lead the Millard West over Millard South in the quarterfinal game. Tyler Hinkle earned the win, striking out eight.
14. Ryan Crnkovich and Jesse Parker each had three hits for Omaha Gross in the win over Fremont Bergan, as the Cougars racked up 17 hits in the game. Brandon Winklemann had two doubles for the Cougars, and Tom Van Haute earned the victory in relief, striking out six and allowing only two hits in four innings of work.
15. North Star's Jacob Hiatt threw a three-hitter for the win over Lincoln East in the HAC semifinal. Hiatt and teammates Jake Benne, Zach Buller and Zack Klapperich all doubled in the game, and Ricky Ideus had a three-run home run.
Daily Calendar for Wednesday, April 16, 2008
6 Game Days left until District Assignment and Seeding on April 23
Blair 11, South Sioux City 4 [corrected: scores were previously reversed.]
Varsity games scheduled for Wednesday, April 16:
4:00 Omaha Skutt Catholic @ Nebraska City
4:00 Lincoln North Star @ Papillion-LaVista South 4:30 Columbus @ Norfolk
4:30 Omaha North @ Omaha Bryan
4:30 Douglas County West @ Omaha Roncalli Catholic
5:00 Millard South @ Elkhorn 5:00 Lincoln Southeast @ Lincoln Northeast 5:00 Lincoln East @ Lincoln Southwest 5:00 Omaha Westside @ Omaha Benson 5:00 Omaha Northwest @ Omaha Burke 6:30 Lincoln North Star @ Papillion-LaVista
Heartland Athletic Conference Championship. Congratulations to the North Star team and Coach Lanny Bolles for winning the HAC. North Star benefitted from a first round bye that allowed them to save some pitching for the Championship. By contrast Southeast used their top arms (Scheffert and Kuebler) to reach the finals. Even so, the Navigators had to come back from a 10-3 deficit to earn the championship. No rest for the Champs as they come into the Metro today for a pair against the Papio teams: Papillion-LaVista South at 4:00 and Papillion-LaVista at 6:30. (Note: we're received a final score of 15-10, however the LJS is reporting 14-10; we'll confirm.)
Metro Day 2. If we learned nothing else the past two days, we saw that Bryan is a pretty salty and solid team, beating Bellevue East and Papio South before falling 2-0 to Westside in a close semifinals game. The loss brought to end a six-game win streak for the Bears, which also included a 1-0 win over Westside in the Millard West Tourney. The streaky Bears (12-10) won a pair to start the season, then lost six in a row, then won four, then lost three, then won six.
Also getting a "plus" rating out of the Metro Tourney is Bellevue West (4-8), winners over Burke in the opening round. The Thunderbirds have won of three of their past four after starting the season losing seven of eight. Although Burke salvaged a 5-4 consolation win over Central, a shaky outing by Kansas State recruit Ben Heairet, giving up eight hits in 4 2/3 innings to the 6-12 Eagles while striking out five and walking three, raises some concerns for the Dawgs. If the lanky lefty can get his curve ball going, Burke's post-season stock goes way up. Bellevue East (9-7) is looking to gain some momentum for a post-season run after stumbling in the opening round against Bryan. The Chieftains seem to have the pitching and offense to get in a groove, but so far the results have been inconsistent.
Westside has to be happy to have shaken off the Millard West Tourney blues to reach the Metro finals against Millard West. That game will be played Thursday evening at 6:00 at Fricke.
The King of K's. Nebraska City's Logan Ehlers continues rack up strikeouts, this time against the defending state champs, Elkhorn. The sophomore southpaw fanned 13 Antlers in a 3-hitter as the Pioneers posted a 2-1 win. Previously, Ehlers struck out 19 against Wahoo and 20 against Bellevue West.
Slumping Islanders. We anticipated that winning the Papio South Tournament Championship and the return of some injured players would give Grand Island (6-10) a late season boost. Instead, the Islanders have lost three straight following the April 5 win over Papio South. The defending champs went 0-2 in the HAC tourney with a loss to 4-10 Lincoln High and suffered a 14-4 5 inning loss to Pius last night.
Ya gotta win the first one. Some teams that saved top arms for later rounds of the Metro tournament paid the price. Will those first round upsets affect how teams set up their pitching for Districts?
Class B Movers and Shakers. Number 2 Ralston (8-3) recovered nicely from Monday evening's 8-6 loss to Elkhorn (9-7) by handing #1 Roncalli (10-2) its second loss of the season by a score of 6-1. Derek Landis held the Pride to only three hits while earning his fifth win of the season. Meanwhile, fellow River Cities Conference rivals Skutt and Gross battled at Skutt with the Cougars prevailing 8-4. Brian Boro had a strong outing for the Cougars both offensively and on the mound. Ralston, Roncalli, Skutt and Gross along with the dangerous duo, Beatrice and South Sioux City, will all rumble in the River Cities Conference Tournament this weekend.
Blair (5-4), Gretna (6-7) and Pius (7-6) are all coming on to contend for one of the four wild card spots up for grabs in Class B. Blair has won five straight after starting the season with four losses to Class A teams and #1 Roncalli. Gretna has won four of their last five for interim coach Mike Castagnoli after starting out by losing six of seven. The Dragons shelled Beatrice last evening after the Orangemen had just hung losses on Skutt and Elkhorn. Meanwhile, the Thunderbolts have won six of their last seven after starting 1-5. The 'Bolts rang up a Wild Card Bonus Points win against Class A Grand Island last evening.
Jeff Weander
Papillion-LaVista
Brian Boro
Omaha Gross
Conor Kingsbury
Omaha Burke
Aaron Molinaro
Lincoln Pius X
Mitch Reinig
Gretna
Outstanding Performances:
Kevin Gengel and Matt Tew each had three hits for Bellevue East in the Chieftains' win over North. Jerred Morrison scattered 6 hits, allowing 2 runs in a complete game performance.
Papio's Jeff Weander scored 4 times and drove in 4 runs on 4 for 4 hitting against South.
Burke's Conor Kingsbury was 2 for 3 with 3 RBI's in the win over Central. John Johnson was 3 for 3 with a walk and 2 RBI's, and Josh Samuelson was 2 for 3 with a double for the Eagles.
Westside's Chris Williams threw a complete game two-hitter against Bryan in the Metro semifinal game, striking out six.
Papio South's Evan Connell threw a complete game three-hitter, and Anthony Dunn had three hits and four RBIs in the win over Bellevue West.
Northwest's Andy Samson helped himself earn his first win of the season by going 3 for 3 against Benson. Jackson Righter homered for the Bunnies who fought back from 6-1 deficit to go up 7-6 in the top of the fourth before being outscored 5-1 the rest of the way.
Millard West shortstop Brandon Bass hit a three-run home run and Younger Bassh Brother Brett tripled in the Metro semifinal win over Millard North. Mike Peterson improved his record to 4-0 for the Wildcats.
In the HAC Championship Game North Star's Nate Wilder had 3 RBI's on a home run and double and earned the win (his 3rd) in relief. Jacob Hiatt and Ricky Ideus also homered for the Gators. Josh Scheffert had 4 RBI's for the Knights on a single and three-run homer.
Ralston's Derek Landis earned his fifth win of the season, a complete game 4-hitter with 8 strike outs against Class B #1 Roncalli. Andy Hunt drove in two runs on three hits for the Rams.
Nebraska City hurler Logan Ehlers struck out 13, giving 3 hits and no earned runs to earn the win over Elkhorn. Shawn Hermann provided offensive support with a double and a triple for the Pioneers.
Senior lefty Aaron Molinaro earned his third win of the season and had two hits, including a double, in a six-inning complete game performance against Grand Island. Alex Heideman was 3 for 3 for Pius, and Drew Welsh and Pat Essay each homered for the Thunderbolts.
Senior right-hander Brian Boro of Gross earned his third win, striking out 12 and allowing only four hits by Skutt. Boro also helped himself offensively, driving in 4 runs on three hits, including a double. Adam Kresl doubled and tripled for the Cougars.
Josh Ostrom of Fremont Bergan was 4 for 4 with 2 doubles and a triple and drove in 3 runs as the Knight's four-run rally in the bottom of the seventh against Columbus fell just short. Kurt Farmer had two hits and earned the win for the Discoverers.
Mitch Reinig of Gretna earned his third win of the season with a complete-game shutout over Beatrice, allowing just four hits. Jay Omar had for hits for the Dragons.
CJ Brewer of Blair pitched five innings and struck out six in the win over South Sioux, and Tyler Dahlgren had three hits, including a double.
Wahoo's Nate Raver "had a day" as he went a combined 6 for 10 in the doubleheader against Crete with two RBI's, three runs scored and a double. Teammate Eric Johnson was 3 for 3 with 4 RBI's in the first game. Clint Ohnoutka earned the game one win and helped himself with a home run.
Daily Calendar for Thursday, April 17, 2008
5 Game Days left until District Assignment and Seeding on April 23
(Let us know about your fundraiser and we'll help promote it. Let's help each other out. It's all about the game.)
Varsity games scheduled for Thursday, April 17:
[all cancellation information is unofficial]
4:30 Omaha Gross Catholic @ Ralston
4:30 Lincoln Pius X @ Norris [cancelled]
4:30 Millard North @ Papillion-LaVista South [postponed]
4:30 Bellevue East @ Millard South [postponed] 4:30 Omaha South @ Columbus [postponed] 5:00 Lincoln High @ Grand Island [postponed]
5:00 Omaha Bryan @ Nebraska City [cancelled] 5:00 Bellevue West @ Omaha Northwest [postponed]
6:00 Seward @ Omaha North [cancelled] 6:00 Omaha Roncalli Catholic @ Fremont Bergan [postponed]
6:30 Blair @ Crete [cancelled] 6:30 Gretna @ Douglas County West 6:30 Wahoo @ Beatrice [cancelled] 7:00 Lincoln High @ Grand Island [postponed]
Metro Conference Championship:
Westside vs. Millard West
Today's game has been rescheduled for 4:30, Monday, April 21 at Fricke Field. The previously scheduled game between Papio and Millard West will be played at 7:30 that evening.
Monarch Invite (Saturday) [note schedule change, no games Friday]
Notes and Comments:
Championship Venue Change. Due to the threat of rain, today's 6:00pm Metro Conference Tournament Championship Game has been moved to the all-weather Warrior Field at Westside High School. Millard West (19-3) and Westside (12-5) will compete for the crown. According to the World Herald, it will be junior lefty Jake Rupp on the mound for Westside against Millard West's junior righty Tyler Niederklein.
Speaking of rain . . . looks a bit soggy out there this morning. If your game in the Metro area is cancelled today, head on over to Westside for the Metro Championship. Let's have a nice turn out for the game.
All-Tourney Teams. Coaches, players and fans: Help us recognize the top performers in the HAC, Metro and RCC Tourneys by submitting your nominations for All-Tourney teams from each tournament. Please submit your nominations before 5:00pm on Sunday, the 20th. Give us some names of guys whose play lifted their team -- whether pitching, hitting or fielding. We'll select 8 position players (any position other than pitcher) and 3 pitchers from each tournament.
Ink for the Bassh Bros.Nice article by Mike Patterson in this morning's OWH about Brett and Brandon Bass of Millard West, including interesting information about the boys' hockey background and the benefits of same for developing hand-eye coordination and quick wrists. Look for the Ultimate Baseball Academy's planned 55,000 square foot baseball facility to include an ice rink. (Just kidding)
Upsets continue. Three surprising results from last night: Northwest over Burke, Elkhorn over Millard South and Papio over HAC Champ North Star.
After dropping 7 of their last 8, Northwest (5-8) upset Class A #6 Burke (9-4) by a score of 11-6 at Burke. After winning 7 of their first 8, the Bulldogs have lost 3 of their last 4. Northwest is a gritty team, and first baseman / pitcher Ryan Leffler, who got the win, has impressed us. The Huskies pounded out 18 hits, including a 5 for 5 night by junior Kyle Kinman.
Class A #5 Millard South (12-6) flirted with danger in the Metro by falling five runs behind Northwest before coming back to post a 9-7 win. Last night a three-run rally in the top of the 7th against Class B #3 fell short as the Patriots lost to the Antlers, 8-5. The Patriots fell behind 8-2 after three innings and committed 6 errors in the game. Wayne State recruit Jake Ritzdorf led the Antlers offensively with 3 RBI's while good looking junior righty Josh Bullock earned the win.
Papio (8-9) took advantage of a depleted North Star pitching staff for 12 hits en route to an 11-7 win over the Class A # 7 Navigators (12-5) in game 2 of the Gators' double-header against the two Papio teams at Fricke. North Star dropped the first game to Class A #2 Papio South 4-3 in nine innings. Brian Pruch, Derek Leif and Josh Tietsort led the Monarchs with two hits apiece.
Rainy Day Activities. Things to do on a rainy day:
Seniors and Juniors: if you've committed to play college ball somewhere tell us where using the "Where Are You Going to Play College Ball?" form on the "Online Forms" Menu.
Everyone: come up with a creative caption for this game action photo. Send your entry to: admin@metropreps.com with "Photo Caption" in the subject line. Be sure to include your name. Winning entry will published along with the photo in a subsequent edition of the home page.
Kyle Kinman
Omaha Northwest
Ryan Leffler
Omaha Northwest
Michael Albert
Papillion LaVista South
Nathan Cech
Lincoln Southeast
Danny Kulus
Omaha Roncalli
Outstanding Performances:
Bob Sullivan of Roncalli threw a five-inning complete game 3 hitter against DC West without issuing any walks. The Pride's Danny Kulus was 3 for 3 and drove in an RBI in each at bat.
Michael Albert of Papio South drove in 3 of his teams 4 runs against North Star, including the game winner in the 9th inning. Titan second baseman had three hits, and Stephen Bougher earned his 3rd win in relief of starter Kendall Wehrle. North Star's Nate Wilder hit a solo home run at Fricke for the Gators.
Papillion LaVista's Josh Tietsort (two doubles), Brian Pruch and Derek Leif had two hits apiece and combined to drive in seven runs for the Monarchs in the Monarch's win over North Star.
Bryan's Justin Cordes threw a five-hit shutout against North as Nick Forman, Marcus Madej (pronounced mad'-dee), and Dan Casey each had two hits. Madej and North's Adam Chapman tripled in the game. Speaking of Chapman, we apologize for inadvertently omitting recognition of his fine performance in the Vikings' first round game of the Metro Tourney against Papio South where he went 3 for 3, with a single and 2 doubles.
Elkhorn's Josh Bullock struck out 5 in 5 innings with 0 walks to earn the win against Millard South. Jake Ritzdorf drove in 3 runs on 2 hits, and Weston Foxx had 2 triples and 2 runs scored for the Antlers. Colton Thomas, Nick Schriever and Alex King each had 2 hits for the Patriots, with Thomas and Schriever each stroking a double.
Josh Scheffert and Nathan Cech of Lincoln Southeast each had three hits, including a triple by Cech, against Northeast. Scheffert also earned the the save in relief of sophomore lefty Jaydee Jurgensen who got the win.
Chris Williams and Ryan Tomlinson of Westside each drove in four runs in the Warrior's win over Benson. Jory Goldstrom and Alex Williams tripled for Westside, while the Warrior's Bear Opitz and the Bunnies' Kelvin Crandell homered.
Northwest was led by a pair of junior lefties in the win over Burke: outfielder (and pitcher) Kyle Kinman was 5 for 5 at the plate, and Ryan Leffler earned the win while also contributing a double.
Norfolk's Geoff Bennett was 3 for 5 and drove in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth in the Discovers 3-2 win over Columbus.
Southwest's Adam Lavelle homered and doubled while going 3 for 4 and driving in three runs in the Silver Hawks' win over East. Mike Korsakas earned the win and helped himself with a double.
Skutt's jumbo junior righty, 6'8" Zach Croonquist, struck out seven and allowed only 1 hit in four innings to earn the win against Nebraska City. Senior second baseman John Beutler went 4 for 4 to lead the Skyhawks offensively.
Daily Calendar for Sunday, April 20, 2008
2 Game Days left until District Assignment and Seeding on April 23
Papillion LaVista fans cheer for the host team in the Monarch Invite on a beautiful spring Saturday. Due to wet fields the tournament was played at Westside.
Varsity games scheduled for Monday, April 20:
Metro Tourney Championship Game
4:30 Millard West vs. Westside
Fricke Field, Papillion
Other Varsity Games:
4:30 Gretna @ Bellevue East
4:30 Omaha Skutt Catholic @ Omaha Central
4:30 Omaha Benson @ Omaha Roncalli
4:30 Omaha Northwest @ Bellevue West
5:00 Lincoln Pius X @ Lincoln North Star 5:00 Lincoln East @ Lincoln Northeast
5:00 Lincoln Southwest @ Omaha Creighton Prep 5:00 Columbus @ Wahoo 6:30 Nebraska City @ Beatrice
6:30 Omaha North @ Omaha South 7:00 Lincoln Pius X @ Lincoln North Star 7:00 Millard South @ Lincoln Southeast 7:00 Elkhorn @ Norris 7:00 Columbus @ Wahoo
7:00 Lincoln High @ Lincoln Northeast 7:30 Papillion-LaVista South @ Omaha Creighton Prep 7:30 Millard West @ Papillion-LaVista
Varsity games scheduled for Tuesday, April 21:
4:00 Wahoo @ Omaha Benson
4:30 Seward @ Grand Island
4:30 Papillion-LaVista South @ Millard South 4:30 Crete @ Nebraska City 4:30 Bellevue West @ Omaha Central 5:00 Lincoln Southeast @ Columbus 5:00 Omaha Gross Catholic @ Elkhorn 5:00 Millard West @ Omaha North 5:00 Papillion-LaVista @ Omaha Northwest 5:00 Omaha Bryan @ Omaha Westside
6:30 Omaha Skutt Catholic @ Ralston 6:00 Norfolk @ South Sioux City 6:30 Gretna @ Blair 7:00 Fremont Bergan @ Lincoln Northeast 7:00 Bellevue East @ Millard North 7:00 Omaha Burke @ Omaha Creighton Prep
Papillion LaVista South baserunner Bo Suponchick tries to get out of a pickle as Bryan shortstop Lars Trizila applies some defensive pressure and ultimately gets the out.
Notes and Comments:
Metro Conference Championship Game. Monday afternoon 4:30 at Fricke, Millard West vs. Westside.
Weather Warrior. Westside's all-weather Warrior Field is a tremendous asset for the Metro baseball community. As the only playable ballfield in the Metro yesterday, it was the site of six games in the Monarch Invite that otherwise would have been a complete washout. Many thanks to Coach Greco and the Westside folks for making their beautiful ballpark available to others when the need arises. The fan amenities and views of game action are outstanding. Show your appreciation by eating some pasta at their fundraiser tonight.
Sockrider closes in. While on the subject of Westside and the Monarch Invite, we note that the Warrior's senior right-hander, Tim Sockrider, earned his 15th career win last night against the host team Monarchs in an exciting 3-2 eight inning game. Down 2-0 in the bottom of the 7th, the Warrior's scored two runs to send the game into extra innings and won it in the bottom of the eighth on Dylan's Flott basehit. Sockrider went the distance, allowing four hits and striking out 11. Tim is now just two wins shy of tying the Westside spring season career wins record of 17 shared by Sam Murphy and Drew Schwab.
Prep rolls through Kansas Tournament. The top-ranked Prep Junior Bluejays went 3-0 in the River City Basball Festival in Lawrence, Kansas this weekend to improve to 19-1. Thursday's game was rained out. Games against out-of-state opponents from continguous states do count for Wild Card purposes. We'll check in with all three schools Monday morning to get their latest, greatest win-loss records and will update the "Daily Seeding Snapshot" accordingly.
Best 1-2 Punch? Other than Prep's Ludemann-Holtmeyer-Raburn-McKenna combo, which team has the best two pitchers to help their team blow through districts and into state? Lincoln Southeast certainly has to be a team to be reckoned with in this regard with Jake Kuebler and Josh Scheffert. Southeast is a team that has been lurking just outside of the Top 6 in Wild Card Points and will try make it into the top row with games against Millard South and Columbus remaining on the schedule before Wednesday's cut off for District Seeding. If the Spartans end up in the second row as a #2 seed in one of the four-team single elimination district tournaments, that's going to make for a tough match-up for the #1 seed, assuming both teams clear their first round game.
Catching Your Wild Card Opponents in the final days. Millard South and Lincoln Southeast, two teams in the thick of battle for a #1 district tournament seed, will go head-to-head Monday night in Lincoln. Does a head-to-head win over an opponent give a contending team a "multiplier" effect like in the MLB, where a head-to-head win means that the winner picks up a full game instead of a half-game? The answer is "yes and no." In the MLB, the real benefit of the head-to-head is that a full-game movement up the standings can be accomplished in one game instead of two. If you can beat your opponent head-to-head, you don't have to rely on someone else to do it for you in another game the same day. For example, with only two days left in the season, the most efficient way to pick up ground over an opponent is to beat them yourself, which removes the possibility that they will match your win with a win over another opponent on the same day.
In that regard, the NSAA system is like the MLB system. Your win over your 1st Division opponent means 50 points for your, 39 points for them -- an 11 point spread. A head-to-head win is the most efficient way to create an 11 point advantage over your opponent on a single day. You don't need to rely on another team to beat your opponent for you. But, where the NSAA system differs from the MLB system is that the outcome of games played that same day by the two teams' previous opponents will also impact the potential 11 point advantage. In the MLB, the day ends with a full-game pick-up by the winning team. In the NSAA, the 11 point advantage derived from the head-to-head is just part of the story. The final standings for that day could also be impacted by how the opponents of the two teams fared that day. In fact, the 11 point advantage could be completely nullified by four losses by the winning team's opponents that day, if each loss dropped that opponent down a division. So, the short answer is, "yes, but . . . ."
Watchootalkinbout, Willis?. If the preceding discussion sounded like it was spoken in a foreign language, you might want to take a look at our "Wild Card System Primer."
District Tournament Sites. According to the NSAA Baseball Manual, "district sites will be determined near the start of the season." However, as of the present time, only two sites have been identified for Class A (Fricke and Burke) and for Class B (Elkhorn Legion Field and Skutt). According to Jim Angele of the NSAA, several site have agreed to host the district tournament that their team is playing in. Should multiple teams in the same district want to host the tournament, the highest seeded team will be selected as the site host, according to Angele. The site selections will be announced after Wednesday's assignment of teams to districts and seeding of the district tournaments.
Groups vs. Districts. The illustration of the serpentine seeding method in the Baseball Manual identifies each column grouping (which corresponds to a District) by the heading of "Group" rather than "District." This is consistent with the NSAA's previously conceived plan to designate site hosts early in the season before seeding occurred. For example, since Burke has been assigned to host District 6, the plan was that the "Group" that Burke was assigned to (whether it was Group 1, Group 2 or whatever) would then be referred to as District 6 and would play the District 6 tournament at Burke. However, this methodology created the possibility that two assigned host teams could end up in the same District. For example, Burke and Papio commited to being site hosts, but both could end up in the same "Group" per the serpentine seeding method. In that situation the higher seeded team would become the site host for that district tournament, and the lower seeded team would have to host a district tournament other than the one that it was playing in. Because many teams were reluctant to commit to being a site host if doing so created the possibility of hosting a tournament other than the one they were playing in, the current "let's wait until after seeding to assign district hosts policy" has evolved. As Jim Angele put it, "everyone likes the new seeding method and is working together to make it work."
District Tournament Schedules. District Tournaments are to be played Saturday May 3, Monday May 5 and Tuesday May 6, according to the NSAA Baseball Manual. In the four four-team Class A districts and in all four Class B districts, the tournaments will consist of three games: 1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3 and the Championship between the winners. In Class A, there are two districts with 5 teams, which requires a fourth "play in" game between the 4 and 5 seeds, with the winner advancing to play #1 in the semifinals. Other than the Championship being played on Tuesday and the play-in game being played on Saturday, it is unclear what the schedule will be for the other games. We will investigate this further.
All-Tourney Teams. Coaches, players and fans: Help us recognize the top performers in the HAC and Metro Tourneys by submitting your nominations for All-Tourney teams from each tournament. The deadline for submitting nominations is 5:00pm, Wednesday, April 23rd. We'll select 8 position players (any position other than pitcher) and 3 pitchers from each tournament.
Form follows function. Kendall Wehrle of Papio South drives the ball over the fence for a 2-run homer, and Southeast third baseman Josh Scheffert prepares to throw across the infield.
Eli Nelson
Papillion LaVista South
Josh Sheffert
Lincoln Southeast
Anthony Dunn
Papillion LaVista South
Tim Sockrider
Omaha Westside
Kyle Lynch
Omaha Bryan
Outstanding Performances:
Nick Foreman of Bryan was 3 for 5 against Southeast with a triple, an RBI and 2 runs scored.Southeast’s Jake Kuebler was 2 for 4 with 2 RBI’s and a homerun.
Bryan’s Kyle Lynch went 4 for 6 in two games Saturday, with 4 RBI’s, a home run and a double.
Papio South’s Eli Nelson was 2 for 3 with 4 RBI’s on a 3-run homerun and a double against Bryan.Kendall Wehrle also stroked a 2-run homer.Adam Dunaway earned his fifth win.
Anthony Dunn had 3 hits against Southeast and was 2 for 2 with a walk against Bryan as he improved to 11 for 14 with 3 doubles in his last 4 games.In his fourth inning at-bat against Bryan, Dunn fouled off eight Lars Trizila pitches before drawing a walk.
Lincoln Southeast’s Josh Scheffler hit three doubles and threw a complete game in the win over #2 Papio South.
Tim Sockrider had an inside the park grand slam against Fremont Bergan, and Peter Thomas earned his second win on the mound for Westside.Bergan junior centerfielder Justin Beranek doubled and tripled for the Knights.
Westside’s Dylan Flott had 2 hits against Papio, including the game winning RBI single in the bottom of the eighth for Westside. Tim Sockrider threw a complete game four-hitter, striking out 11.
Daily Calendar for Friday, April 18, 2008
4 Game Days left until District Assignment and Seeding on April 23
To the best of our knowledge, Wednesday's schedule was a complete washout. That didn't stop the "countdown clock" from ticking; games played today (if any), Saturday, Monday and Tuesday will be the last ones to count for District Tournament Assignment and Seeding. Games played after that (including District Tournament games) will count only for purposes of determing the Wild Card Teams that will advance to the state tournament and the seeding of the state tournament.
4:30 Omaha Gross Catholic @ Ralston
4:30 Lincoln Pius X @ Norris [cancelled]
4:30 Millard North @ Papillion-LaVista South [postponed]
4:30 Bellevue East @ Millard South [postponed] 4:30 Omaha South @ Columbus [postponed] 5:00 Lincoln High @ Grand Island [postponed]
5:00 Omaha Bryan @ Nebraska City [cancelled] 5:00 Bellevue West @ Omaha Northwest [postponed]
6:00 Seward @ Omaha North [cancelled] 6:00 Omaha Roncalli Catholic @ Fremont Bergan [postponed]
6:30 Blair @ Crete [cancelled] 6:30 Gretna @ Douglas County West 6:30 Wahoo @ Beatrice [cancelled] 7:00 Lincoln High @ Grand Island [postponed]
4:00 Omaha Creighton Prep vs Lawrence (KS) High [postponed]
(Let us know about your fundraiser and we'll help promote it. Let's help each other out. It's all about the game.)
Varsity games scheduled for Thursday, April 17:
Not sure if any of these fields are playable, plus forecast calls for more rain and low temps. We'll pass on cancellations as we learn of them.
4:30 Wahoo @ Norris
6:30 Omaha Benson @ Omaha South Columbus @ Bellevue East [cancelled] Lincoln Pius X @ Elkhorn [cancelled] Omaha Creighton Prep @ Shawnee Mission North, KS
Metro Conference Championship:
Westside vs. Millard West
The Championship will now be played at 4:30 on Monday, April 21 at Fricke Field. The previously scheduled game between Papio and Millard West will be played at 7:30 that evening.
Championship Venue Change (again). Due to the yesterday's rain and cold temps, the Metro Conference Tournament Championship Game has been rescheduled for Monday, April 21 at 4:30pm and returns to its original location, Fricke Field in Papillion.
All-Tourney Teams. Coaches, players and fans: Help us recognize the top performers in the HAC, Metro and RCC Tourneys by submitting your nominations for All-Tourney teams from each tournament. Due to the rescheduling of the Metro Championship Game, we'll extend the deadline for submitting nominations to 5:00pm, Wednesday, April 23rd. Don't wait, though. Get those nominations for Metro games already played and HAC games. Give us some names of guys whose play lifted their team -- whether pitching, hitting or fielding. We'll select 8 position players (any position other than pitcher) and 3 pitchers from each tournament.
Correction. We incorrectly stated that Ryan Leffler of Northwest is a junior. In fact, he is a senior. Ryan has battled back from a season-ending knee injury last June to have a strong senior campaign.
Ben Waiting. Ben Heairet's start against Central on Tuesday (April 15) in the Metro Tourney was his first since throwing a March 24 3-hitter against Bellevue East in which he had 12 K's -- a span of 22 days. Burke played only two games from March 30 until the beginning of the Metro Tourney this past Monday.
The Rain Falls; The Clock Ticks. Tuesday's deadline for earning Wild Card Points for district assignment and seeding purposes looms. Looks like 2 of the final 5 days (yesterday and today) will see only a handful of games played (if that many). The unwisdom of NSAA's administrative decision to assign and districts ten days prior to the first district game this year instead of five days out as in the past is being compounded by uncooperative weather.
Rainy Day Activities. Things to do on a rainy day:
Seniors and Juniors: if you've committed to play college ball somewhere tell us where using the "Where Are You Going to Play College Ball?" form on the "Online Forms" Menu.
Everyone: come up with a creative caption for this game action photo. Send your entry to: admin@metropreps.com with "Photo Caption" in the subject line. Be sure to include your name. Winning entry will published along with the photo in a subsequent edition of the home page.
Kyle Kinman
Omaha Northwest
Ryan Leffler
Omaha Northwest
Michael Albert
Papillion LaVista South
Nathan Cech
Lincoln Southeast
Danny Kulus
Omaha Roncalli
Outstanding Performances:
Note: Since we didn't have any games last night, we're going to let these guys enjoy another day of recognition.
Bob Sullivan of Roncalli threw a five-inning complete game 3 hitter against DC West without issuing any walks. The Pride's Danny Kulus was 3 for 3 and drove in an RBI in each at bat.
Michael Albert of Papio South drove in 3 of his teams 4 runs against North Star, including the game winner in the 9th inning. Titan second baseman had three hits, and Stephen Bougher earned his 3rd win in relief of starter Kendall Wehrle. North Star's Nate Wilder hit a solo home run at Fricke for the Gators.
Papillion LaVista's Josh Tietsort (two doubles), Brian Pruch and Derek Leif had two hits apiece and combined to drive in seven runs for the Monarchs in the Monarch's win over North Star.
Bryan's Justin Cordes threw a five-hit shutout against North as Nick Forman, Marcus Madej (pronounced mad'-dee), and Dan Casey each had two hits. Madej and North's Adam Chapman tripled in the game. Speaking of Chapman, we apologize for inadvertently omitting recognition of his fine performance in the Vikings' first round game of the Metro Tourney against Papio South where he went 3 for 3, with a single and 2 doubles.
Elkhorn's Josh Bullock struck out 5 in 5 innings with 0 walks to earn the win against Millard South. Jake Ritzdorf drove in 3 runs on 2 hits, and Weston Foxx had 2 triples and 2 runs scored for the Antlers. Colton Thomas, Nick Schriever and Alex King each had 2 hits for the Patriots, with Thomas and Schriever each stroking a double.
Josh Scheffert and Nathan Cech of Lincoln Southeast each had three hits, including a triple by Cech, against Northeast. Scheffert also earned the the save in relief of sophomore lefty Jaydee Jurgensen who got the win.
Chris Williams and Ryan Tomlinson of Westside each drove in four runs in the Warrior's win over Benson. Jory Goldstrom and Alex Williams tripled for Westside, while the Warrior's Bear Opitz and the Bunnies' Kelvin Crandell homered.
Northwest was led by a pair of junior lefties in the win over Burke: outfielder (and pitcher) Kyle Kinman was 5 for 5 at the plate, and Ryan Leffler earned the win while also contributing a double.
Norfolk's Geoff Bennett was 3 for 5 and drove in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth in the Discovers 3-2 win over Columbus.
Southwest's Adam Lavelle homered and doubled while going 3 for 4 and driving in three runs in the Silver Hawks' win over East. Mike Korsakas earned the win and helped himself with a double.
Skutt's jumbo junior righty, 6'8" Zach Croonquist, struck out seven and allowed only 1 hit in four innings to earn the win against Nebraska City. Senior second baseman John Beutler went 4 for 4 to lead the Skyhawks offensively.
Daily Calendar for Monday, April 21, 2008
2 Game Days left until District Assignment and Seeding on April 23
Papillion LaVista fans cheer for the host team in the Monarch Invite on a beautiful spring Saturday. Due to wet fields the tournament was played at Westside.
Varsity games scheduled for Monday, April 21:
Metro Tourney Championship Game
4:30 Millard West vs. Westside
Fricke Field, Papillion
Other Varsity Games:
4:30 Gretna @ Bellevue East
4:30 Omaha Skutt Catholic @ Omaha Central
4:30 Omaha Benson @ Omaha Roncalli
4:30 Omaha Northwest @ Bellevue West
5:00 Lincoln Pius X @ Lincoln North Star 5:00 Lincoln East @ Lincoln Northeast
5:00 Lincoln Southwest @ Omaha Creighton Prep 5:00 Columbus @ Wahoo 6:30 Nebraska City @ Beatrice
6:30 Omaha North @ Omaha South 7:00 Lincoln Pius X @ Lincoln North Star 7:00 Millard South @ Lincoln Southeast 7:00 Elkhorn @ Norris 7:00 Columbus @ Wahoo
7:00 Lincoln High @ Lincoln Northeast 7:30 Papillion-LaVista South @ Omaha Creighton Prep 7:30 Millard West @ Papillion-LaVista
Varsity games scheduled for Tuesday, April 22:
4:00 Wahoo @ Omaha Benson
4:30 Seward @ Grand Island
4:30 Papillion-LaVista South @ Millard South 4:30 Crete @ Nebraska City 4:30 Bellevue West @ Omaha Central 5:00 Lincoln Southeast @ Columbus 5:00 Omaha Gross Catholic @ Elkhorn 5:00 Millard West @ Omaha North 5:00 Papillion-LaVista @ Omaha Northwest 5:00 Omaha Bryan @ Omaha Westside
6:30 Omaha Skutt Catholic @ Ralston 6:00 Norfolk @ South Sioux City 6:30 Gretna @ Blair 7:00 Fremont Bergan @ Lincoln Northeast 7:00 Bellevue East @ Millard North 7:00 Omaha Burke @ Omaha Creighton Prep
Papillion LaVista South baserunner Bo Suponchick tries to get out of a pickle as Bryan shortstop Lars Trizila applies some defensive pressure and ultimately gets the out.
Notes and Comments:
Wild Card Standings Updated. Props to the NSAA for being proactive and getting accurate win-loss records of Prep's Kansas opponents into the Wild Card rankings this morning. Some years this hasn't been done until the day of seeding, which caused a last minute shift in the standings. Prep gained nine points with the updated information, since, per NSAA policy, all three Kansas opponents were initially classified as 4th Division teams resulting in 41 points per contest for the Junior Bluejays. In fact, only winless Shawnee Mission North is a 4th Division team. Olathe South is 4-7 per NSAA (4-8 per our sources), and Shawnee Mission East is 4-4. Plugging in the accurate win-loss records for these schools caused a nine point addition to Prep's previous Wild Card total, increasing their average from 44.0500 to 44.5000. The increase pushed the Jr. Jays ahead of Millard North into the #2 spot. Millard West remains at the top of the rankings with 45.0909. Regardless of whether Olathe South is 4-7 or 4-8, the outcome of their one game prior to Wednesday's seeding will not change their status as a 3rd Division team. If Shawnee Mission North wins both of its games today and tomorrow, they could move up to 3rd Division, with a +3 benefit to Prep. Shawnee Mission East will play the last game impacting Wednesday's Class A seeding Tuesday night at 7:00pm against Shawnee Mission Northwest. East is currently a 2nd Division team at 4-4. A win by SM East won't have any effect; a loss would be a -3 to Prep.
Marysville, Kansas is 4-4 with a doubleheader Tuesday evening. Both Beatrice and Norris split with Marysville and could suffer a 6 point drop if Marysville should lose both games. Two wins or a split by Marysville would not cause a change in points awarded to Beatrice or Marysville. Bergan is scheduled to play Marysville this Saturday.
The win-loss records of all four Kansas teams will continue to impact our Wild Card System through the end of district tournament play on May 6 for purposes of determining state tournament Wild Card qualifiers and state tournament seeding.
Have you checked your team's Wild Card Portfolio today? Be sure to look at your team's game results and Wild Card Points calculations on this page of the NSAA website. A missing or incorrectly reported score could cost your team valuable points. (Select your class and school from the drop-down selection box.)
Metro Conference Championship Game. Monday afternoon 4:30 at Fricke, Millard West vs. Westside.
Off the Schneid. Weather permitting, one of the two winless teams in the state will get its first win this evening when Omaha North (0-13) and Omaha South (0-14) meet at 6:30 at Brown Park. We try to avoid playing favorites around here, but it would certainly be nice to see North Interim Head Coach Mike Greene-Walsh get his first career win as skipper of the Viking ship.
Weather Warrior. Westside's all-weather Warrior Field is a tremendous asset for the Metro baseball community. As the only playable ballfield in the Metro yesterday, it was the site of six games in the Monarch Invite that otherwise would have been a complete washout. Many thanks to Coach Greco and the Westside folks for making their beautiful ballpark available to others when the need arises. The fan amenities and views of game action are outstanding.
Sockrider closes in. While on the subject of Westside and the Monarch Invite, we note that the Warrior's senior right-hander, Tim Sockrider, earned his 15th career win last night against the host team Monarchs in an exciting 3-2 eight inning game. Down 2-0 in the bottom of the 7th, the Warrior's scored two runs to send the game into extra innings and won it in the bottom of the eighth on Dylan's Flott basehit. Sockrider went the distance, allowing four hits and striking out 11. Tim is now just two wins shy of tying the Westside spring season career wins record of 17 shared by Sam Murphy and Drew Schwab.
Prep rolls through Kansas Tournament. The top-ranked Prep Junior Bluejays went 3-0 in the River City Basball Festival in Lawrence, Kansas this weekend to improve to 19-1. Thursday's game was rained out. Games against out-of-state opponents from continguous states do count for Wild Card purposes. We'll check in with all three schools this morning to get their latest, greatest win-loss records and will update the "Daily Seeding Snapshot" accordingly. Prep returns home to a busy early week schedule with games at home today at 5:00 against Southwest and 7:30 against Papio South and tomorrow at 7:00 against Burke.
Best 1-2 Punch? Other than Prep's Ludemann-Holtmeyer-Raburn-McKenna combo, which team has the best two pitchers to help their team blow through districts and into state? Lincoln Southeast certainly has to be a team to be reckoned with in this regard with Jake Kuebler and Josh Scheffert. Southeast is a team that has been lurking just outside of the Top 6 in Wild Card Points and will try make it into the top row with games against Millard South and Columbus remaining on the schedule before Wednesday's cut off for District Seeding. If the Spartans end up in the second row as a #2 seed in one of the four-team single elimination district tournaments, that's going to make for a tough match-up for the #1 seed, assuming both teams clear their first round game.
Catching Your Wild Card Opponents in the final days. Millard South and Lincoln Southeast, two teams in the thick of battle for a #1 district tournament seed, will go head-to-head Monday night in Lincoln. Does a head-to-head win over an opponent give a contending team a "multiplier" effect like in the MLB, where a head-to-head win means that the winner picks up a full game instead of a half-game? The answer is "yes and no." In the MLB, the real benefit of the head-to-head is that a full-game movement up the standings can be accomplished in one game instead of two. If you can beat your opponent head-to-head, you don't have to rely on someone else to do it for you in another game the same day. For example, with only two days left in the season, the most efficient way to pick up ground over an opponent is to beat them yourself, which removes the possibility that they will match your win with a win over another opponent on the same day.
In that regard, the NSAA system is like the MLB system. Your win over your 1st Division opponent means 50 points for your, 39 points for them -- an 11 point spread. A head-to-head win is the most efficient way to create an 11 point advantage over your opponent on a single day. You don't need to rely on another team to beat your opponent for you. But, where the NSAA system differs from the MLB system is that the outcome of games played that same day by the two teams' previous opponents will also impact the potential 11 point advantage. In the MLB, the day ends with a full-game pick-up by the winning team. In the NSAA, the 11 point advantage derived from the head-to-head is just part of the story. The final standings for that day could also be impacted by how the opponents of the two teams fared that day. In fact, the 11 point advantage could be completely nullified by four losses by the winning team's opponents that day, if each loss dropped that opponent down a division. So, the short answer is, "yes, but . . . ."
Watchootalkinbout, Willis?. If the preceding discussion sounded like it was spoken in a foreign language, you might want to take a look at our "Wild Card System Primer."
District Tournament Sites. According to the NSAA Baseball Manual, "district sites will be determined near the start of the season." However, as of the present time, only two sites have been identified for Class A (Fricke and Burke) and for Class B (Elkhorn Legion Field and Skutt). According to Jim Angele of the NSAA, several site have agreed to host the district tournament that their team is playing in. Should multiple teams in the same district want to host the tournament, the highest seeded team will be selected as the site host, according to Angele. The site selections will be announced after Wednesday's assignment of teams to districts and seeding of the district tournaments.
Groups vs. Districts. The illustration of the serpentine seeding method in the Baseball Manual identifies each column grouping (which corresponds to a District) by the heading of "Group" rather than "District." This is consistent with the NSAA's previously conceived plan to designate site hosts early in the season before seeding occurred. For example, since Burke has been assigned to host District 6, the plan was that the "Group" that Burke was assigned to (whether it was Group 1, Group 2 or whatever) would then be referred to as District 6 and would play the District 6 tournament at Burke. However, this methodology created the possibility that two assigned host teams could end up in the same District. For example, Burke and Papio commited to being site hosts, but both could end up in the same "Group" per the serpentine seeding method. In that situation the higher seeded team would become the site host for that district tournament, and the lower seeded team would have to host a district tournament other than the one that it was playing in. Because many teams were reluctant to commit to being a site host if doing so created the possibility of hosting a tournament other than the one they were playing in, the current "let's wait until after seeding to assign district hosts policy" has evolved. As Jim Angele put it, "everyone likes the new seeding method and is working together to make it work."
District Tournament Schedules. District Tournaments are to be played Saturday May 3, Monday May 5 and Tuesday May 6, according to the NSAA Baseball Manual. In the four four-team Class A districts and in all four Class B districts, the tournaments will consist of three games: 1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3 and the Championship between the winners. In Class A, there are two districts with 5 teams, which requires a fourth "play in" game between the 4 and 5 seeds, with the winner advancing to play #1 in the semifinals. Other than the Championship being played on Tuesday and the play-in game being played on Saturday, it is unclear what the schedule will be for the other games. We will investigate this further.
All-Tourney Teams. Coaches, players and fans: Help us recognize the top performers in the HAC and Metro Tourneys by submitting your nominations for All-Tourney teams from each tournament. The deadline for submitting nominations is 5:00pm, Wednesday, April 23rd. We'll select 8 position players (any position other than pitcher) and 3 pitchers from each tournament.
Form follows function. Kendall Wehrle of Papio South drives the ball over the fence for a 2-run homer, and Southeast third baseman Josh Scheffert prepares to throw across the infield.
Eli Nelson
Papillion LaVista South
Josh Sheffert
Lincoln Southeast
Anthony Dunn
Papillion LaVista South
Tim Sockrider
Omaha Westside
Kyle Lynch
Omaha Bryan
Outstanding Performances:
Nick Foreman of Bryan was 3 for 5 against Southeast with a triple, an RBI and 2 runs scored.Southeast’s Jake Kuebler was 2 for 4 with 2 RBI’s and a homerun.
Bryan’s Kyle Lynch went 4 for 6 in two games Saturday, with 4 RBI’s, a home run and a double.
Papio South’s Eli Nelson was 2 for 3 with 4 RBI’s on a 3-run homerun and a double against Bryan.Kendall Wehrle also stroked a 2-run homer.Adam Dunaway earned his fifth win.
Anthony Dunn had 3 hits against Southeast and was 2 for 2 with a walk against Bryan as he improved to 11 for 14 with 3 doubles in his last 4 games.In his fourth inning at-bat against Bryan, Dunn fouled off eight Lars Trizila pitches before drawing a walk.
Lincoln Southeast’s Josh Scheffler hit three doubles and threw a complete game in the win over #2 Papio South.
Tim Sockrider had an inside the park grand slam against Fremont Bergan, and Peter Thomas earned his second win on the mound for Westside.Bergan junior centerfielder Justin Beranek doubled and tripled for the Knights.
Westside’s Dylan Flott had 2 hits against Papio, including the game winning RBI single in the bottom of the eighth for Westside. Tim Sockrider threw a complete game four-hitter, striking out 11.
Daily Calendar for Wednesday, April 23, 2008
District Assignment and Seeding will be announced by NSAA today
Papillion-LaVista South 8, Millard South 6 Bellevue West 7, Omaha Central 4 Lincoln Southeast 7, Columbus 3 Elkhorn 8, Omaha Gross Catholic 1 Millard West 13, Omaha North 1 Papillion-LaVista 9, Omaha Northwest 2 Omaha Westside 4, Omaha Bryan 2
Ralston 4, Omaha Skutt Catholic 0 South Sioux City 13, Norfolk 9 Blair 9, Gretna 4 Fremont Bergan 7, Lincoln Northeast 5 (8 inn) Omaha Creighton Prep 10, Omaha Burke 2
Crete 8, Nebraska City 4
Millard North 5, Bellevue East 2
Grand Island 20, Seward 2
Wahoo 3, Omaha Benson 2
Kansas Scores (impacting WCP's):
Shawnee Mission East* (5-4) vs. Shawnee Mission NW (East won)
Marysville** (6-4) vs. Clay Center (DH) (Marysville won both)
*Prep opponent ** Beatrice, Norris opponent
Varsity games scheduled for Wednesday, April 23:
Omaha Benson @ Bellevue East Lincoln High @ Elkhorn Omaha South @ Millard North Omaha Creighton Prep @ Millard South Bellevue West @ Omaha Bryan Papillion-LaVista @ Omaha Gross Catholic Omaha Northwest @ Omaha North Lincoln Pius X @ Omaha Roncalli Catholic
Omaha Central @ Omaha Westside Omaha Burke @ Papillion-LaVista South
All-Tourney Teams. Coaches, players and fans: Help us recognize the top performers in the HAC and Metro Tourneys by submitting your nominations for All-Tourney teams from each tournament. The deadline for submitting nominations is 5:00pm TODAY. We'll select 8 position players (any position other than pitcher) and 3 pitchers from each tournament.
Wild Card Primer. If you're a Nebraska high school baseball newcomer or just have never known what the heck the whole Wild Card thing-y is all about, check out our Wild Card System explanation.
Notes and Comments:
Today's the Day! The NSAA will announce the District Assignments and District Tournament Seedings today for the 2008 Class A and Class B Baseball District Tournaments, to be played Saturday, May 3, Monday, May 5 and Tuesday, May 6. Six district tournaments will be played in Class A, and four will be played in Class B. The six Class A district tournament winners, along with the two non-district winners that rank highest among Class A teams in the NSAA wild card system as of May 7, will advance to the Class A State Tournament to be played May 10-15. Four district tournaments will be played in Class B with the tournament winners and four Wild Card teams advancing to the inaugural edition of the Class B State Tournament, also in Lincoln.
Bubble Teams. Six games played by Nebraska teams and three games played by Kansas teams yesterday held the potential to impact the number of Wild Card Points awarded to Nebraska teams that had played those teams earlier in the season. The outcome of two of those games caused a shift in the win/loss percentage of Ralston and Wahoo that caused those teams to be reclassified to a higher division, thus giving opponents in prior games three additional points, win or lose.
Team
Won / Lost
Impact
Millard North
Won
No change
Ralston
Won
+3
Westside
Won
No change
Skutt
Lost
No change
South Sioux City
Won
No change
Wahoo
Won
+3
Shawnee Mission East
Won
No change
(SME remains D2 with win)
Marysville, KS (Gm 1 of DH)
Won
No change (M'ville remains D2 with win)
Marysville, KS (Gm 2 of DH)
Won
No change (M'ville remains D2 with win)
District Tournament Sites. Site hosts are expected to be announced today also for the 10 district tournaments. The schedule of when each district tournament game will be played appears to be within the discretion of the tournament director for that site. Districts 1 and 2 each have a play-in game, making for a total of four games. All other districts have three games. Directors may elect to play the preliminary games on Saturday and the Championship on Monday to keep Tuesday open as a hedge against bad weather. Considering our weather this spring, that's probably not a bad idea. Alternatively, they could play games each of the three days with the Championship on Tuesday.
Congratulations to the first place seeds in the Class A District Tournaments -- Creighton Prep, Millard West, Millard North, Papillion LaVista South, Westside and Lincoln Southeast -- and those in the Class B District Tournaments -- Omaha Roncalli, Ralston, Omaha Gross and Elkhorn. Prep jumped over Millard West for the overall Class A #1 spot by virtue of Prep's win over Burke and Millard West's win over Benson. If Millard West hadn't played the Benson game, the Wildcats would have been the overall #1 seed. But, it's baseball -- you play the games on the schedule, try to win and let the chips fall.
Not exactly what Larry Munksgaard had in mind. Lincoln Southeast athletic director Larry Munksgaard was one of the prime movers behind the adoption of the new district assignment method that uses the merit-based Wild Card Points system to place teams in district. One of the criticisms of the former system is that the Lincoln teams were often lumped together in the same district, thereby reducing the chances of a Lincoln team reaching state. As fate would have it, the new system has three teams (Southeast, North Star and Northeast) in one four-team district grouping and two other Class A Lincoln teams (East and Lincoln High) in a five-team district. Southwest is the sole Lincoln team in the five-team District 1 grouping. Assuming that the Southeast, North Star, Northeast district grouping will play in Lincoln, at the least the bright side is less travel for those teams. The Knights and Gators are hoping that a Wild Card ticket to the state tournament will be available for whichever of the two teams needs it.
Sorry to be such a wonk, but . . . The nerd factor has been strongly in evidence on this site this week as we've been winding our way through the Wild Card Jungle to the District Tournaments. Our goal is to take some of the mystery out of the system and to make it more accessible and understandable to high school fans. We apologize if we've bored anyone in the process. Now that districts have been assigned, we'll get back to reporting the action on the field and promise to spend less time showing you spreadsheets.
Outstanding Performances:
Derek Landis of Ralston earned his 6th win of the season, throwing a complete game 2 hitter with 11 strikeouts, and Glenn Fletcher had two hits, including a two-run home run for the Rams in the win over Skutt. Ralston has won 9 games this season; Landis has six of them against no losses.
Papio South's Evan Connell hit a three-run triple in the top of the seventh to give the Titans a comeback win over Millard South. The Patriots had scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 6th to tie it up at 5 apiece and fought back with a run in the bottom of the 7th before falling 8-6. We note that the Titan's second baseman Anthony Dunn returned to the lineup to hit a double following Monday night's trip to the emergency room after being plunked in the helmet at Prep. Steven Bougher won his fifth game of the season for the Titans, and Eli Nelson contributed three hits.
Sean Corriveau of Bellevue West hit a double and a homerun in the Thunderbirds' win over Central.
Creighton Prep's senior southpaw Josh Raburn earned his 5th win of the season with a complete game against Burke. Zane Hinkel and Derek Nelson homered for the Junior Bluejays, Nelson's second in two nights.
Tyler Dahlgren led Blair over Gretna with 3 RBI's on 2 hits, including a double. CJ Brewer improved to 4-1 for the Bears.
Elkhorn junior right-hander Josh Bullock threw a complete game 4 hitter against Gross, striking out 4 and only giving up one walk. Eric Dreesen drove in 3 runs with a bases-loaded double in the Antlers' four-run fourth inning. Dreesen was one of four Antlers who had two hits on the night (each with a single and a double), the others being Jake Ritzdorf, Jake Henne and Tyler Oberembt.
Jake Rupp picked up the win for Westside over Bryan, scattering 7 hits in 6 2/3 innings, and Ryan Tomlinson had 2 RBIs for the Warriors. Lars Trizila and Aaron Beil homered for the Bears.
Junior Nick Yost of Papillion LaVista struck out 11 in a complete outing against Northwest.
Mike Smutny tripled for Millard West and the usual cast of Wildcats, Brandon Bass, Sean Hoover, Jon Schneider and Jessee Vervelde hit the heck out of the ball to help Mike Tomlinson improve to 4-0 on the season.
Jeremy Brandt of Crete had a grand slam home run to lead the Cardinals over Nebraska City and also earned the win on the mound.
In an eight-inning win over Lincoln Northeast, Dillon Blackburn and Justin Beranek of Fremont Bergan each went 4 for 5 with three RBIs.
Dustin Ryba of Grand Island had six RBI's on a grand slam and a two-run base hit in the win over Seward.
Jake Kuebler of Southeast was 2 for 3 with a home run and 2 RBI's in the Knight's win over Columbus. Kurt Farmer had a solo homer for the Discoverers.
Daily Calendar for Saturday, April 19, 2008
3 Game Days left until District Assignment and Seeding on April 23
Metro Conference Championship Game. Monday afternoon 4:30 at Fricke.
All-Tourney Teams. Coaches, players and fans: Help us recognize the top performers in the HAC, Metro and RCC Tourneys by submitting your nominations for All-Tourney teams from each tournament. Due to the rescheduling of the Metro Championship Game, we'll extend the deadline for submitting nominations to 5:00pm, Wednesday, April 23rd. Don't wait, though. Get those nominations for Metro games already played and HAC games. Give us some names of guys whose play lifted their team -- whether pitching, hitting or fielding. We'll select 8 position players (any position other than pitcher) and 3 pitchers from each tournament.
Wild Card System Primer. In case we have any readers who are new to Nebraska high school baseball or others who just get blurry-eyed at the sound of the word "Wild Card Points," we've prepared a not-so-brief, but, hopefully helpful, summary of how the system works and how it impacts district assignments and seeding. Click on the link above to view the summary. There will be a test over this material next Wednesday.
"BASEBALL TWISTER": Central third baseman Josh Samuelson and Burke baserunner Conor Kingsbury collide in a close play at third base in the Metro Tournament. The runner was safe on the play as the ball popped loose. The award-winning creative caption was supplied by Burke dad, Jim Heairet, whose lanky limbs probably helped him excel as a world-class Twister contestant back in the day.
Daily Calendar for Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Today is the Final Day of Games that will count towards District Assignment and Seeding.
Lincoln North Star 5, Pius 4 Lincoln East 5, Lincoln Northeast 2
Omaha Creighton Prep 10, Lincoln Southwest 7
Nebraska City 13, Beatrice 0
Omaha North 13, Omaha South 2 Lincoln Southeast 2, Millard South 0
Elkhorn 7, Norris 2 Lincoln High 7, Lincoln Northeast 2 Omaha Creighton Prep 7, Papillion-LaVista South 0 Millard West 8, Papillion-LaVista 1
Gross 8, Burke 0 Columbus 9, Wahoo 2
Columbus 7, Wahoo 2
Varsity games scheduled for Tuesday, April 22:
4:00 Wahoo @ Omaha Benson
4:30 Seward @ Grand Island
4:30 Papillion-LaVista South @ Millard South 4:30 Crete @ Nebraska City 4:30 Bellevue West @ Omaha Central 5:00 Lincoln Southeast @ Columbus 5:00 Omaha Gross Catholic @ Elkhorn 5:00 Millard West @ Omaha North 5:00 Papillion-LaVista @ Omaha Northwest 5:00 Omaha Bryan @ Omaha Westside
6:30 Omaha Skutt Catholic @ Ralston 6:00 Norfolk @ South Sioux City 6:30 Gretna @ Blair 7:00 Fremont Bergan @ Lincoln Northeast 7:00 Bellevue East @ Millard North 7:00 Omaha Burke @ Omaha Creighton Prep
Reminder:
All-Tourney Teams. Coaches, players and fans: Help us recognize the top performers in the HAC and Metro Tourneys by submitting your nominations for All-Tourney teams from each tournament. The deadline for submitting nominations is 5:00pm, Wednesday, April 23rd. We'll select 8 position players (any position other than pitcher) and 3 pitchers from each tournament.
Wild Card Primer. If you're a Nebraska high school baseball newcomer or just have never known what the heck the whole Wild Card thing-y is all about, check out our Wild Card System explanation.
Westside Warriors
2008 Metro Conference Tourney Champs
Photo by Dianne Sockrider
Notes and Comments:
Night of the K's. Two of the top senior pitchers in the state and a standout sophomore rang up hitters in impressive numbers in winning efforts last night. Nebraska City sophomore southpaw Logan Ehlers struck out 18 Beatrice hitters, Prep's Joe Holtmeyer fanned 16 in the win over Prep and Nebraska recruit Jake Kuebler of Southeast sent 15 Millard South Patriots walking back to the dugout with their bats in the hands. A peek at the radar gun over the shoulders of the two pro scouts in attendance at the Prep-Papio South game showed Holtmeyer's fastball consistently in the 86-88 mph range with Papio South pitcher Kendall Wehrle at 85-86.
Speaking of fastballs . . . a scary moment hushed the crowd at Prep in the top of the third inning as a Holtmeyer fastball richoted off the helmet of Papio South's Anthony Dunn with enough force to bounce all the way back to Holtmeyer's glove in the air. Just prior to the delivery of the pitch, Dunn had been granted "time" by the homeplate umpire. Holtmeyer then continued with the pitch that struck Dunn in the helmet. After being treated in the dugout for a gash in his head, Dunn returned to the batter's box and finished his at bat. In the top of the next inning second baseman Dunn made an exceptional defensive play before leaving the game for treatment in the emergency room.
Big Games. Three games among our Class A Top Ten teams on the eve of the district seeding could cause some movement among the anticipated top seeds. #7 Southeast defeated #5 Millard South 2-0 behind a one-hitter by Kuebler, #8 Westside downed #2 Millard West 11-9 in the Metro Conference Championship and #1 Prep blanked #4 Papio South 7-0 as Holtmeyer allowed only 3 hits. Check our "Daily Snapshot" links above later this morning to see what Wild Card World looks like when the results of last night's action are crunched by the big Univac 2000. In the rescheduled Metro Championship that was originally to have been played April 12, Westside jumped out with nine runs in the top of the first inning and then held off the hard-hitting Wildcats.
Falling Star? Class A #6 North Star has lost three of four games since winning the HAC Championship last week, including a split last night with Class B #5 Pius. The Thunderbolts won the first one 11-2 as senior lefty Aaron Molinaro earned the win and helped himself with a homerun. The 'Gators won the second, 4-5, in eight innings as Ricky Ideus went the distance, striking out ten. The Navigators were #5 in the Wild Card Standings yesterday and are idle tonight.
Vikings Win! Congratulations to the North Vikings and interim head coach Mike Greene-Walsh for the13-2 win over South, the Vikings' first of the year.
Front Page News. The Omaha World Herald had a nice color photo and story on the front page of the sports section today for the Metro Championship. Please let OWH sports editor Thad Livington know that we appreciate the coverage of our sport.
Skyhawks on the Mound. At one point Sunday afternoon, three Skutt baseball alums were pitching in Division 1 games. 2006 grad TJ Walz was on the mound for Kansas earning the win against the Huskers, while former teammate Zach Herrr (Class of 2005) was throwing for the Huskers. Meanwhile, 2006 Skutt grad Bob Lackovic was throwing in relief in Creighton's loss to Northern Iowa. Nice job, Coach Engelkamp and Coach Exner.
Joe Holtmeyer
Creighton Prep
Tyler Splichal
Bellevue East
Tim Tlamka
Lincoln Pius
Jake Rupp
Westside
Austin Cole
Skutt
Outstanding Performances:
In the Metro Championship Game against Millard West, Westside's Tim Sockrider reached based five times, going 3 for 3 with a double, and scored 3 runs, Connor Freeburg had 3 RBIs and Jake Rupp added a 3-run homer for Warriors. Brett Bass doubled and tripled for the Wildcats
Skutt's Austin Cole threw a complete game two-hitter against Central, while the Eagles' Derek Noel countered with complete game three-hitter in a game that featured some outstanding defense and a couple of costly defensive miscues by Central. Skutt's middle infielders, John Elliott at short and John Beutler at second, sparkled defensively, as did Central's infield with a pair of nice plays on ground balls by first baseman John Johnson with pitcher Noel covering the bag. Second baseman Doug Moore and third baseman Josh Samuelson also made some nice plays.
Patrick Essay and Alex Heideman each had 3 hits for Pius in the win over North Star, including a triple for Heideman. Eric Schleppenbach had 2 doubles, Tim Tlamka had a homer and 3 RBI's and winning pitcher Aaron Molinaro had a home run as the Thunderbolts pounded out 15 hits.
In the second game of the Pius-North Star doubleheader, Alex Jones doubled-in two Pius runs in the top of the 7th to tie the game, and North Star's Zach Klapperich doubled home the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth. Ricky Ideus threw an eight-inning complete game, striking out 10. Eric Schleppenbach doubled for Pius to finish with three on the day.
Lincoln East's Cam Adams had two hits and two RBIs to lead the Spartans over Northeast.
Lincoln Southwest's Cole Ingram and Mike Korsakas, who homered in the game, combined for 4 hits and 5 RBI's as Lincoln Southwest put a scare into #1 Prep, jumping out to a 4-0 lead, and leading by a run going into the bottom of the sixth. Jace Anderson earned the win in relief for the Junior Bluejays.
Nebraska City's Logan Ehlers threw a no hitter against Beatrice, striking out 18, and went 4 for 4 at the plate with a homerun. The Pioneers pounded out a total of 14 hits.
Omaha North junior 3rd Baseman Jesse Agosta and freshman catcher Tyler Cook each had 4 hits in the win over South. Sophomore Jason Combes pitched a complete game, giving up 0 earned runs and striking out 10 to pick up North's first win. Agosta and and Adam Chapman both tripled as the Vikings pounded out 18 hits.
Jake Kuebler of Southeast threw a complete game 1 hitter with 15 strikeouts and went 2 for 4 with 2 doubles to lead the Knights over Millard South.
Three Elkhorn pitchers, Patrick Johnson, Rob Wheeler and Ben Wallingford, combined to strike out 10 Norris batters, giving up only 3 hits and no earned runs. Johnson picked up his 3rd win of the season, and Wallingford got the save. Josh Bullock, Jake Ritzdorf and Eric Dreesen all doubled to lead an 8 hit attack for Elkhorn, with Bullock's two-bagger bringing home 3 runs. Chad Johnson of Norris was 2 for 3 with a double and an RBI single.
Lincoln High's Eric McVicker was 2 for 3 with a double, triple and 4 RBIs, and Jeremy Philippi went the distance on the mound for the Links, striking out 4 and scattering 7 hits, to earn the win over Northeast.
Prep's Joe Holtmeyer struck out 16 in a complete game 2-hitter against a very good hitting Papio South team. Derek Nelson hit a two-run home run for the Junior Jays.
Tyler Hinkle of Millard West held Papio to a single run in six innings of work, striking out 8. Brandon Bass and Alex Miller tripled for the Wildcats in the win.
Brian Boro of Gross earned his fourth win of the season with a complete game shutout against Burke, striking out 10 and scattering 5 hits. Brandon Winkelman hit a home run for the Cougars.
Tyler Splichal had 3 hits and 4 RBI's to lead Bellevue East over Gretna, and Danny Pierce picked up his 4th win of the season for the Chieftains.
Northwest's junior lefty Kyle Kinman threw a complete game 4-hitter and hit a double in the Huskies' win over Bellevue West.
Roncalli's senior lefty Joe Bircher earned his 4th win of the season and helped himself with a home run. Bircher and Danny Kulus went deep back-to-back, driving the first two pitches of the second inning over the fence. Benson's defense turned inning ending double plays during the second, third, and fourth innings.
Papillion-LaVista @ Columbus [postponed] Lincoln North Star 15, Lincoln High 3 (5 inn.) Lincoln Pius X 7, Omaha Gross Catholic 5 Seward 11, Blair 9 Gretna 6, Wahoo 0 Grand Island 15, Norfolk 0
Don Kraft Invitational (Millard South) Lincoln Northeast 8, Omaha Creighton Prep 7 Millard North 8, Lincoln East 7 Millard West 12, Omaha Northwest 3 Millard South vs. Westside [postponed]
Bellevue West Invitational Papillion LaVista South 12, Omaha South 2 (5 inn.) Omaha Bryan 9, Bellevue West 4 Bellevue West 17, Omaha South 2 (5 inn.)
Curt Shockey Baseball Tournament (Ralston) Fremont Bergan 10, Nebraska City 2 Beatrice 11, Benson 4 Lincoln Southeast 4, Omaha Skutt Catholic 3 Omaha Burke 3, Ralston 2
Varsity games scheduled for Friday, April 25:
2:00 Crete @ Seward 5:00 Columbus @ Lincoln Pius X 6:30 Douglas County West @ Blair 6:30 Norfolk @ Seward 7:30 Wahoo @ South Sioux City
Tournament Games today: It's a pretty wet day in the Metro. Stay tuned for any changes in tournament schedules.
