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Head baseball coaches of the sixteen member schools of the Metropolitan High School Activities Association have announced their 2011 All-Metro Team.  In a break from tradition, the coaches opted to name twenty-one players to one All-Metro Team instead of selecting a First Team and Second Team consisting of fourteen players each as in the past. 

This year's All-Metro Team is dominated by players from the six Metro teams that competed in the recent Class A state tournament.  State Champion Papillion-LaVista South leads the way with five honorees, and State Runner-Up Millard West placed four on the team.  Millard North, Millard South and Westside each have three representatives on the team while Creighton Prep has two.  Only one player who did not play in the state tournament was selected to the team. 

Seventeen of the twenty-one honorees are members of the Class of 2011 with the remaining three spots being awarded to juniors.   This year's honorees are:

Outfielders

David Badalucco, Westside (2012). Despite missing ten games due to injury, junior outfielder David Badalucco hit eight home runs, drove in 28 runs and scored 34 times while batting .484 for the Warriors.

Kevin Connolly, Creighton Prep (2012). Prep centerfielder Kevin Connolly burst onto the varsity scene as a junior this spring with ten home runs and a .429 batting average.  He also scored 35 runs and drove in 27 with a .940 slugging percentage.

Justin Paul, Papillion-LaVista South (2011). Justin Paul drove in 43 runs and scored 35 while hitting at a .406 clip with a .729 slugging percentage to help the Titans repeat as state champs.  A unanimous All-Metro selection as an outfielder, Paul was also 6-1 on the mound and had a lower ERA (0.80) than any of the pitchers selected.

Quentin Urban, Millard South (2011). A repeat First-Team All-Metro selection from 2010, Urban hit .464 while driving in 43 runs and scoring 43 runs.  The three-year starter led his team in seven offensive categories, including five triples.

Infielders

Casey Gillaspie, Millard North (2011). A unanimous All-Metro selection, Gillaspie is the honorary team’s leader in batting average (.515), RBI (55) and runs (53).  The lefthander played first base and was also the Mustangs’ top pitcher with a 7-2 record. He earned Second Team All-Metro honors in 2010.

Blake Headley, Millard South (2011). The smooth-fielding shortstop is the second-highest run producer on the honorary team with 45 runs batted in.   He also led the Patriots with 12 doubles while batting .360.

Tyler Lane, Papillion-LaVista South (2011). A Second-Team All-Metro and Second-Team All-Nebraska outfielder in 2010, Lane maintained his status as one of the state’s top hitters in 2011 despite a challenging move to shortstop to become a unanimous selection on this year's honorary squad.  The fleet-footed Lane stole 38 bases and scored 48 runs while batting .496 to help lead the Titans to the state title.  His 59 hits leads the All-Metro team.

Adam Morey, Millard West (2011). Morey, a First Team All-Metro selection a year ago, drove in 37 runs and scored 34 times as a sure-handed shortstop for the state runner-up Wildcats while batting .369.

Devin Reaves, Millard West (2011). Reaves was a defensive standout at the hot corner for the Wildcats while compiling a .439 average with five home runs, 25 RBI and 34 runs scored.

Catchers

Dan Dunn, Westside (2011). A three-year starter for the Warriors, Dunn played second base as a sophomore but was moved to catcher his junior year to fill a team need.  Dunn leads the All-Metro squad in doubles (15), hit for a .459 average, stole 19 bases and had a .569 on-base percentage from the leadoff spot.

Joe Mancuso, Papillion-LaVista South (2011). A defensive standout behind the plate, Mancuso also hit for a .341 average with 26 RBI and five home runs.  He was the starting catcher on back-to-back state champion teams. 

Designated Hitters

Alex Mortensen, Millard North (2011). Mortensen, a Second-Team All-Metro Selection in 2010, helped lead the Mustangs to a fourth-place state tournament finish while batting .425 with 48 hits, 10 doubles, 5 triples, 26 RBI and 37 runs scored. 

Dawson Porter, Millard North (2011). A three-year starter for the Mustangs, Porter hit .398 with 9 doubles while driving in 37 runs and scoring 34 times.

Utility Players

Reagan Fowler, Millard South (2011). One of the Patriots’ top pitchers (5-2), Fowler was also an everyday first baseman who led his team in hits and runs scored.  He compiled a .434 batting average with 43 hits, 11 doubles, 31 RBI and 49 runs scored.

Tyler Cook, Omaha North (2011). A four-year starter behind the plate for the Vikings, Cook is the only player on this year’s All-Metro squad selected from a team that did not qualify for the state tournament.  In addition to being the Vikings’ regular catcher, he was also the team’s go-to pitcher.  He batted .486 with ten doubles, 31 RBI, a .578 on-base percentage and an .814 slugging percentage.  He threw out 15 baserunners attempting to steal.

Pitchers

Nate Griep (Millard West 2012). The hard-throwing righthander was 6-2 on the season with both losses to the state champion Titans whom he also defeated once.  He struck out 56 in 49 1/3 innings and held opposing batters to a .160 batting average.  His 1.28 ERA is the lowest on the All-Metro pitching staff.

Albert Johnson (Papillion-LaVista South 2012). An All-Metro First Team selection as a sophomore in 2010 when he went 5-1, Johnson compiled a 8-2 record this season for the state champion Titans with 55 strikeouts in 47 1/3 innings pitched. 

Kyle Kubat (Creighton Prep 2011). A unanimous selection to this year’s honorary squad, Kubat leads the All-Metro pitching staff with 82 strikeouts in 46 innings.  He compiled a perfect 6-0 record with a 1.83 ERA.  Kubat was a Second Team All-Metro selection in 2010.

A.J. Ladwig (Millard West 2011). The 6’5” righthander lost on the first and last days of the season and earned nine straight wins in between, including four shutouts.  Five of his wins were against teams that competed in the Class A state tournament.  Ladwig, a unanimous All-Metro First-Teamer a year ago, struck out 67 batters in 51 1/3 innings and compiled a 1.50 ERA in 2011. 

Brent Learch (Westside 2011). The senior lefty had a breakout season with a perfect 7-0 record.  He earned a complete game win with one earned run in the last regular game of the season, followed by back-to-back shutouts of Grand Island in Districts and Millard South at State.  Learch struck out 46 in 51 innings.

Mark Lukowski (Papillion-LaVista South 2011). The righthander earns special recognition on this year’s All-Metro pitching staff as the team’s “Closer.”  Lukowski earned 5 saves to go along with a 4-2 win-loss record, with 2 wins and 3 saves coming in the state tournament.  He struck out 47 in 49 1/3 innings while compiling a 1.56 ERA in 20 mound appearances.

(See player stats and list of Honorable Mention players below photos.)

Infield - Casey Gillaspie Millard North	Infield - Blake Headley Millard South	Infield - Tyler Lane Papillion-LaVista South	Infield - Adam Morey Millard West	Infield - Devin Reaves Millard West
Designated Hitter Alex Mortensen Millard North	2011 ALL-METRO CONFERENCE BASEBALL TEAM     as selected by Metro Conference Head Baseball Coaches			Designated Hitter Dawson Porter Millard North
Utility - Tyler Cook Omaha North				Utility - Reagan Fowler Millard South
Catcher - Dan Dunn Westside				Catcher - Joe Mancuso Papillion-LaVista South
Pitcher - Nate Griep Millard West	Pitcher - Albert Johnson Papillion-LaVista South	Pitcher - A.J. Ladwig Millard West	Pitcher - Brent Learch Westside	Pitcher - Kyle Kubat Creighton Prep
Closer - Mark Lukowski Papillion-LaVista South	Outfield - David Badalucco Westside	Outfield - Kevin Connolly Creighton Prep	Outfield - Justin Paul Papillion-LaVista South	Outfield - Quentin Urban Millard South

Honorable Mention
The following players received Honorable Mention:

Bellevue East:  Bryce Haflett
Bellevue West:  Joe Babic, Zach Dibble, Ben Hiser, Lucas Webb
Creighton Prep:  Scott Bates, Chase Dudzinski, Derek Petrich
Omaha Benson:  Paul Morrow, Dylan Mustoe
Omaha Bryan:  Kyle Cunningham
Omaha Burke:  Ryan Cate, Grant Hindman, Dillon Plath, Dylan Yost
Omaha Central:  Bobby Mancuso, Kaleb Zimmer,
Omaha North:  Chase Nuzum
Omaha South:  Anthony Arenas
Millard North:  Cam Beatty, Phil Doyle
Millard South:  Kyle Honeycutt, Kevin Knudson, Dan Regan, Austin Reid, Matt Sich
Millard West:  Andrew Nelson, Andrew Standish
Papillion-LaVista:  Cole Baker, Taylor Bruch, Josh Kramer, Jake Placzek
Papillion LaVista South:  Curtis Bussard, Tyler Goldsberry
Westside:  Brandon Bruggeman, Jake Loftus, Brett Murray, Brandon Stennis

When Steve Spongberg stepped down last November after thirty-two years as head coach of the Kearney Senior Legion team, he certainly didn’t expect to finish the 2011 season as the head coach of a state champion Junior Legion team.

But, that’s exactly what happened.

Within the span of a year, Spongberg went from earning Class A Senior Legion Coach of the Year honors by taking Kearney Runza to a Class A State Runner-Up finish and a trip to the Central Plains Regional Tournament to coaching Sutton to the Class C Junior Legion State Championship.

His 2011 Sutton Junior Legion team followed a 31-3 regular season with an 8-0 post-season run to win the state title at Hershey on July 28th.

“Leaving Kearney was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever had to make,” commented Spongberg, “because they were so good to me and because of the success level we had there.”

At the time of his resignation, Spongberg cited as his reason for leaving that he wanted to be able to watch his own son Lance, then a junior, play baseball in their hometown of Sutton during the summer. 

“My intention was to watch my son play – just as a parent and not as the coach,” Spongberg stated.  But, with Sutton Junior Legion head coach Ty Yost running his own business and Spongberg having summers off as a longtime teacher and head basketball coach at Sutton High School, a plan soon developed to have Spongberg take on the head coaching job with Yost as his assistant.

“He came to me after basketball season and offered to help me out,” explained Yost.  “I said, ‘no, you’re not helping me out.  I’m helping you out.’”

The rest, as they say, is history.

“We had just 22 kids sign up for Legion baseball,” said Spongberg.  “Our Senior Legion coach, Dave Van Kirk, felt that it was very important for the future of baseball in our community to keep both a Juniors team and a Seniors team.”

“As a result, we had just eleven kids on each of those teams.   We dual-rostered Lance and some other Juniors and would have moved them up to the Seniors team if we hadn’t made it to state.  But, as it was, we were able to keep them down,” Spongberg stated.

Yost had coached the younger players, including his son Brody and Lance, since they were eleven.  “Even in Pee Wees, they were a good ballclub,” he noted.  “They just like to play together.  Some of them might have been able to move up to Seniors, but if we were going to have two teams, it just made sense to keep this bunch together, let them play as a group and compete together.”

The meager roster numbers were, in part, due to the high level of commitment that Spongberg set out for prospective players prior to the season. 

“This has been good program in the past, but they hadn’t been able to get over the hump and get past teams like Davenport / Edgar in the Area Tournament,” observed Spongberg, noting that the Sutton Juniors hadn’t been to the State Tournament since 1992. 

“We needed to play more games and play better competition in order to get ready for the post-season,” he stated. 

Spongberg used contacts he had developed as Kearney’s longtime head coach to add games and two quality tournaments against Class A competition to the schedule, increasing the number of regular season games from 22 to 34.

“We had eighteen kids in this age group who had played baseball before and who were likely to come to tryouts, but when we explained the level of commitment that it was going to take this year, that number dropped to eleven,” Spongberg noted.

“It was pretty tough getting through the season with only eleven kids on the team,” observed Yost.  “We played a few games with only nine, and on a hot day down in Wilber, our first baseman passed out in the fourth inning.  We had to finish that game with only eight but were still able to win.”

Fortunately, among the eleven players on the roster there were five very solid pitchers – Lance Spongberg, Wade Overturf, Brady Yost, Reed Stone and Tyler Keenan.

“Pitching was the key to our success this season,” said Spongberg.  “We were really blessed with good arms.  We stuck with a five-man rotation throughout the season that allowed our guys to be fresh going into the post-season.   No one threw more often than every five days until we got to Area and State.  We weren’t overpowering, but we threw strikes and played good defense.”

Not overpowering?  To say that Lance totally dominated at the Junior Legion level would be an understatement.  The 5’11”, 155 pound right-hander didn’t allow a single run in 71 2/3 innings this season, finishing with a perfect 11-0 record, allowing just 25 hits while ringing up 130 strikeouts. 

Wade Overturf also racked up a perfect 10-0 record on the mound, including three post-season wins.

“Lance has a good fastball in the low eighties that he can spot very well … inside, on the corners, just off the plate, up and down,” Yost said.  “And, he has a very good curve ball that he can throw in any count, plus a change-up and a slider.  He has very good control, and he mixes his four pitches very well.  He’s not very predictable about what he’s going to throw in any given count.”

The Sutton Juniors lost three games out of their first twelve – to Crete, to Lincoln East and to Davenport / Edgar by a score of 25-6 on June 8th.  They didn’t lose again.  All season. 

The team reeled off thirty straight wins to finish the season at 39-3  -- to our knowledge, the longest winning streak in the state this year at either the Junior Legion or Senior Legion level. 

With a 31-3 record going into Area Tournaments, Sutton was the #1 seed and also the host team of the seven-team C-5 Junior Legion Area Tournament.  Sutton got a first-round bye before being paired with #4 seed Doniphan / Trumbull, coached by former Beatrice High head coach Steve Hartman.  Sutton’s Overturf outdueled Doniphan-Trumbull’s Ian Askey as Overturf allowed one run on just two hits in the win while Askey gave up two runs on three hits. 

The win set up a semifinal clash with two-time defending Area Champion Davenport / Edgar, the team that had beaten Sutton last year by a run in the Area Championship game and had handed them their last loss back in June. 

Lance Spongberg was given the start in this huge game and responded with a complete game, one-hit shutout with eleven strikeouts.  Although his counterpart, Davenport / Edgar’s Andrew Kuta, held most of the Sutton lineup in check by fanning fifteen batters, second baseman Tyler Keenan rallied Sutton’s offense with two RBI on a double and a triple to help secure a 4-0 victory. 

Davenport / Edgar then played Wymore in an elimination game, gutting out a 6-5 win with a run in the bottom of the eighth to set up a rematch with Sutton in the Area Championship game with a trip to state at stake.

Although outhit six to three, Sutton pulled out a 2-1 win to advance to state for the first time in 19 years as Overturf picked up his second Area Tournament win.

“Really, both of those teams we played in Area were as good as anyone we played in State,” said Yost.  “That was a tough Area.  But, we had played a tough schedule all year.  When we got to the post-season, we didn’t see anything we hadn’t seen before.”

In the opening game of the Class State Tournament at Hershey, Lance Spongberg again came up with a big performance on the mound – a complete game two-hit shutout with nine strikeouts – and went 3-for-4 at the plate with a double, an RBI and three runs scored as Sutton cruised to an 11-0 win over West Point in six innings.  Five Sutton players hit doubles in the game. 

Overturf picked up his third post-season win the next day as Keenan again propelled the Sutton offense with a 4-for-4 performance that included a double, an RBI, two stolen bases and two runs scored in the 12-5 victory. 

The win put Sutton in a showdown with Mount Michael (33-6) in the decisive Game 11 that would guarantee the winner a spot in the championship game.   Tied at two through five innings, Mount Michael scored in the bottom of the sixth to go up 3-2 before Sutton rallied for two runs to take a 4-3 lead in the top of the 7th. 

With Spongberg throwing in relief on short rest, Mount Michael loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh.  A ground ball to short resulted in an inning-ending double play as Sutton advanced as the only unbeaten team in the tournament.

In addition to earning his third post-season win in that game Lance Spongberg broke a bone in his non-throwing hand while diving head-first into first base on a close play.  Despite the pain and swelling, Lance continued to play shortstop and pitch throughout the remainder of the tournament.

The following day Sutton was paired with a feisty Elmwood-Murdock team that had gotten up off the mat after being down 7-0 after two innings in the C-4 Area Championship Game to defeat Teckmeyer Financial, 15-14, with a three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh.  Elmwood-Murdock was still alive at state despite a 15-4 first round loss to Palmer-Wolbach-Greeley-Spalding. 

Sutton and Elmwood-Murdock were tied at four in the bottom of the sixth with Sutton’s Wade Overturf at second with one out when rain forced the game to be suspended.  When play resumed the following day, Tyler Keenan brought Overturf home with an RBI single, and Reed Stone pitched a scoreless seventh for a 5-4 win. 

With a 5-4 elimination game win against Mount Michael, Palmer-Wolbach-Greeley-Spalding emerged from the losers’ bracket to play in the Championship against Sutton.

Despite the broken bone in his hand, Lance Spongberg threw another complete game shutout as Sutton won the title, 3-0, behind an RBI double by Lincoln Ruybalid and sacrifice flies by Derek Bailey and Harrison Biehl.

Spongberg’s streak of scoreless innings nearly came to an end in the third inning when PWGS had runners at second and third with no outs, but he fanned the next three batters en route to his fourth post-season win. 

As an indication of the quality of Sutton’s defense, young Spongberg did not allow any runs – earned or unearned – during his streak of 71 2/3 scoreless innings.

Most of the members of the state championship team are now busy with football practice, including Spongberg who will be returning as the starting quarterback after suffering a torn ACL last fall.  He’s also the starting point guard on his dad’s basketball team and returned from his ACL rehab in time to help his team reach the state tournament last winter.  He was also a member of the Sutton golf team that won state his sophomore year and returned to state last year. 

“All of these kids except one play multiple sports,” said Yost.  “They just like to compete together.” 

Baseball is not the only sport in which Sutton athletes excelled this summer.   Todd’s Feed, a 16 and under girl’s softball team from Sutton, won the Class C State softball championship in Hastings in mid-July and then captured a national title in Omaha two weeks later.   Sutton’s 12-13 girls’ softball team finished as runner-up in a national tournament in Kansas City this summer.

Pretty good stuff for a town with a population of 1,502.

	Sutton, 2011 Class C Junior Legion State Champions (39-3). Front Row (l-r) Maxwell Olson, Lincoln Ruybalid, Lance Spongberg, Tyler Bailey, Derek Bailey, Brody Yost.  Back Row (l-r)  Coach Ty Yost,  Coach Dean Olson, Reed Stone, Tristan Sheridan, Tyler Keenan, Wade Overturf, Harrison Beihl, Coach Steve Spongberg, Coach Doug Stone.  Photo by Clay County News.

Publisher's note:  The following article was written by Robby Korth, a journalism major at UNL, as a project for his Sports Reporting class last semester.  Robby, a sophomore from Fayetteville, Arkansas, is the assistant sports editor at the Daily Nebraskan and is seeking a career as a sports journalist in a major market.  We appreciate Robby's cooperation in allowing us to publish his article and also thank Dr. David Ogden at the University of Nebraska Omaha for permission to publish his 2008 study about select baseball that is mentioned in the article.


Byron Hood will step onto the mound next season as a proven veteran for the Norris High School Titans.

The 16-year-old sophomore has already caught the attention of college scouts, receiving letters from programs across the country after a season featuring a no-hitter against Elkhorn South.

“He throws just over 90 mph,” said Colby Hood, Byron’s dad and Hickman Junior Legion assistant coach. “And when you’re throwing that hard people kind of turn and watch.”At 8, Byron launched his baseball career with the Lincoln Dodgers, a select club that gives advanced players a chance to play at the highest level.

The Hoods spent countless hours on the road and a little bit less on fuel than Crete Carrier Corp. during those select years.
“We bought ourselves a camper,” Byron’s mom Jen Hood said. “We took our camper everywhere that we went and just stayed there and made it a vacation.”

Those were the only vacations the Hood family took during Byron’s childhood. The Hoods have three more kids ranging from 9 years old to 18 months. And they’re all about baseball and being active.

Byron Hood

But why be all about select baseball when there is so much more to life?

“It’s just the competitiveness,” Byron said. “(Lower-level teams) were not at the level I want to compete at.”

That competitiveness spills onto the next level.  According to Byron every member of his varsity high school baseball team played select baseball.

But Norris isn’t where the trend ends. Byron Hood is part of a phenomenon sweeping Nebraska and the nation – the growing trend of former select youth-level baseball players filling out a majority of roster spots on high school teams.

David Ogden is a youth baseball researcher and communications professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

He’s published papers on blacks in baseball, the diminishment of pickup baseball in the Midwest and the effects of select ball on college baseball teams.

In the last study Ogden made a discovery about the effects of select ball as high up as college baseball:  almost 90 percent of college baseball players surveyed played some sort of select ball before high school.

“These teams have become feeder programs,” Ogden said. “They’re becoming the pipeline for college and even the big leagues.”

If a kid isn’t playing select ball from as early an age as possible, he’s going to have a tough time playing high school baseball, according to Colby Hood.

Without training baseball players simply aren’t ready to play even junior varsity baseball.

“From a baseball perspective if you don’t do the select activities you won’t be prepared to play baseball in high school,” Colby Hood said.

Todd Sandberg, baseball coach at Lincoln High, faces a challenge. Half of his players never played select ball.
“We simply don’t have the numbers,” Sandberg said. “There isn’t competition at positions. If a catcher or shortstop is good and there isn’t anybody behind him to push him it’s hard to motivate him.”

And it’s not about the special treatment coaches give kids because their parent is so involved and has the coach’s ear. It’s not about money parents give to the program because it’s simply assumed every select baseball kid is rich. It’s not about the kid going to camps and getting to know the coach.

It’s about skill.

“Players that are non-select probably have had adequate coaching,” Sandberg said. “But, there just is not a lot of repetition compared to a select kid who plays even 50 games a year.”

Baseball is a sport that requires more learned skills than other sports, according to Jack Mayfield, executive director of baseballnebraska.com. Athleticism helps when a player is trying to leg out a hit when a third baseman snags a ball at the line. But it isn’t everything.

Mayfield’s website publicizes the play of high school baseball players and helps link them up with college recruiters and pro scouts, including players like Byron Hood.

“Unlike other sports like football where a gifted athlete can rely on his natural ability to simply outrun everybody on the field, baseball relies on some very specific learned skills,” Mayfield said.

“It’s all about hand-eye coordination. You need to be shown a correct way to do it and then you need to practice it over and over.”

That repetition comes from select ball.

Hood played for a regional all-star team, the Mac N Seitz Indians. That team played 19 games. When it was all said and done the 14-year-old kid, played 68 games at shortstop and pitcher.

That’s eight more than the average reported by Ogden. By comparison, the Nebraska Husker baseball team has 56 games scheduled for its regular season.

Due to rule changes involving bat standards, this season players have to buy new bats, and good ones run about $350, Sandberg said. Often he finds the program buying spikes and gloves for the kids. Baseball is the hardest sport to keep up with the cost in his opinion.

“Select baseball teams will be outfitted with fancy jackets, they’ll have more uniforms than us, they’ll have nice travel bags,” Sandberg said. “They look like a minor league team.”

But there are ways to combat the cost Colby Hood said.

The Dodgers cleans up iceboxes for the Lincoln Stars and work concessions for Nebraska basketball games. Select teams also hold fundraisers and sometimes wealthier parents will give out scholarships to poorer players to help families make it through the season.

“If it’s really necessary and the kid has talent,” Colby Hood said, “they can be scholarshipped.”

That money can come anywhere from within the organization or parents, Colby Hood said. But as for details about specific cases, those are rarely known because of an unspoken code amongst select baseball parents, Colby Hood said.
“It’s not really discussed amongst the group,” he said.

Money isn’t what is holding kids back, Ogden said.

“It’s one of the factors,” Ogden said. “But it’s not a major factor:  it’s not as big as people think. It’s all about time. It takes a lot of time to have a kid in select baseball.”

On average parents paid $918 per season for their sons to play select baseball in Ogden’s 2008 study titled “Theoretical Considerations in College Baseball’s Relationship with Youth Select Baseball ,” published in “The Journal of Sports Behavior.” And that figure covers everything from player fees to stays at the Holiday Inn.

But, the range of expenditures was between nothing -- many select teams have sponsors -- and $6,000 annually.

Another reason kids have problems playing select baseball has to do with where they live, rather than their parents’ income.

“Because of demographics and urban geography, urban kids don’t get chances like suburban kids do,” Ogden said.

Baseball fields are harder to come by in urban areas because there is less area to build parks.

Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities (RBI), a national program sponsored by Major League Baseball, gives inner city youth from ages 5-18 a chance to play baseball in a drug-free and safe environment.

And the organization offers inner city kids a chance to play 15 to 20 games a season according to Ogden.

But players like Hood are playing far more than that in a season. And it gives them a competitive advantage.

Tryouts can also earn players a spot on select squads. More talented players are more likely to get the nod from high-level clubs like the Dodgers.

The Hoods recall coaches coming to Junior Saltdogs League games asking about their son C.J. who will play for the Dodgers next season on the 9-and-under team.

And it’s a competitive atmosphere. Coaches are looking for players who will bring in wins, rather than ones who will have more fun losing.

“Everybody doesn’t get to play,” Colby Hood said. “From the perspective of a kid who is a low level roster kid, they’ll pay as much as a high-level roster kid. But they won’t get to play as much and they won’t get as many reps in practice.”

Select players are hard for Sandberg to come by, but when he does they often make the varsity team. More often than not a kid who would ride the bench at Lincoln Southeast, Lincoln Southwest or even Pius X could start for the Links.

“We are not a baseball factory,” Sandberg said. “We’re an inner city school, so it means I have to be active.”

So Sandberg and his staff have changed their mission over the years. Lincoln High used to be competing in the playoffs, but now things are totally different.

“It used to be ‘let’s make state every year,’” Sandberg said. “Now we just have to tell parents, ‘we’ll make your kid better at baseball.’ ”

Now there are simply different levels of high school baseball, and the Lincoln Highs of the world will always have a tough time competing with the Lincoln Southeasts and Southwests.

This spring while Byron Hood hopes to throw his second no-hitter in high school, Sandberg will be teaching a kid how to throw a fastball.

Rivalry games are expected to have a little drama – it comes with the territory – especially when the two teams have a history such as the one between the Skutt Skyhawks and the Ralston Rams.

This one didn’t disappoint as Skutt defeated Ralston, 6-5, Thursday night with the help of a game-tying grand slam off the bat of Colton Clark in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Former Skutt head coach Keith Engelkamp, who retired after last spring's Class B state runner-up finish following 16 years with the school, gave some insight on the long-standing rivalry between the two River Cities Conference foes:  “It's a healthy rivalry, but it was always a battle,” Engelkamp said in reference to his numerous match-ups with the Rams.  “Ralston, they’re fighters, they always leave it all on the field.”

Engelkamp talked about how strong the teams in the conference are and said of Class B teams that also play several Class A opponents, Ralston is always one of the best and will always provide a tough game.

“Sometimes you just have to be lucky, but it’s always nice to beat Ralston.”

The meeting between the two teams was the first of the season and came on Ralston's home turf, Orval Smith Field, in the semifinals of the annual Curt Shockey Ram Invitational named after the legendary former Rams coach against whom Engelkamp coached for many years.

After a scoreless first three innings, Ralston second baseman Steve Cassidy drew a walk to lead off the fourth, and back-to-back homeruns by senior Grant Kay and Junior JJ Benes allowed the Rams to jump out to a 3-0 lead in the fourth.

The Rams tacked on two more in the fifth when senior Alex Buechler singled and Kay walked, and after they had moved up a base on a wild pitch and a stolen base, respectively, senior Jayden Crowley singled them both in to give Ralston a 5-0 lead.

After producing only one hit in the first five innings off Ralston starter Ryan Herdman, who had ten strikeouts in the game, Skutt showed its first signs of life in the sixth.

Walks to Skutt junior Zach Barton and catcher Colton Clark, along with a single by pinch-hitter Michael Meyers loaded the bases for the SkyHawks, and they scored their first run of the game when a single by junior Matt Warren brought Barton home.  Herdman ended the Skyhawk threat and the inning with a strikeout, but with a pitch count approaching the century-mark, his night came to an end with the Rams still  holding a comfortable 5-1 lead.

Facing a new pitcher, senior lefty Sean Erickson, in the bottom of the seventh, Skutt began the inning with back-to-back singles by lead-off hitter Thomas Christoffersen and Barton.  Senior Michael Zabawa loaded the bases when an inside pitch hit him, prompting another pitching change and setting the stage for Clark.

Senior righthander Chad Otte came to the mound to face Clark, and the game changed in an instant as Clark hit a game-tying grand slam to send it into extra innings and give Skutt a fighting chance.

“I thought one big hit would get something started for us,” Clark said.  “I came up and was looking for the big hit.”

Big hit may be an understatement as it completely changed the outcome of the game, and it seemed the pitching changes by Ralston gave the SkyHawks new life.

“We knew we were going to get a game with their guy Herdman throwing, he’s just a quality pitcher,” Skutt head coach Shawn Exner said. “They change pitchers and it gives us the momentum.”

Meanwhile, Skutt senior Luke Croonquist, who came on in relief of starter Jake Wiepen in the fourth, kept the Ralston offense in check.  The Rams weren’t able to put another run across the board after the fifth, allowing Skutt an opportunity for a comeback. 

Warren led off with a single in the bottom of the eighth for the Skyhawks, putting the potential game-winning run on base.  After a sac bunt and a sac fly to right, Warren stood at third with two outs and a chance to win the game.  An 0-2 breaking pitch in the dirt to Christoffersen got past catcher Zach Gerch, and Warren crossed the plate to complete the comeback and begin the celebration.

“These kids do not give up on each other,” Exner said.  “They may not be the most talent-loaded team, but they’re the most coachable.”

This game could be a preview of the District B-2 championship game if both teams win their first game of the tournament in which Skutt (11-4) is the No. 1 seed and Ralston (7-8) is the No. 2.

“There is no guarantee we both get by our first games,” Exner said of the potential re-match in districts. “But, it would create a pretty fun environment.”

Coach Exner also mirrored Engelkamp’s thoughts on the relationship of the two teams.

“There’s a mutual respect,” Exner said.  “But it’s also a pretty good rivalry.”

With the win Skutt advances to face Lincoln Southeast in the championship game Friday night at 7:00 at Orval Smith, and Ralston plays Archbishop Bergan in Friday's 4:30 third place game.